AN    ADDRESS 


ON    THK 


PROPRIETY  OF  CONTINUING  THE 

Mt  fe0l0gkal  Sbrkj  0f  (Wf0ntia 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  LEGISLATURE 

^T    jiACE^AMENTO,    THURSDAY    ^VENING. 


January  3Oth,   1868: 


(To   fcofjirf)   arc   n 


TO    THE    LEGIStATi;:,  1867-8:    ALSO 

M  \NAGE  THE  VOSK.MITE    VALLKY    AND    THE 
HIG     TREE    GROVE,     FOK    TH  7~S. 


BY    1.    I).    WHITNKV, 


T  O  W  X  K     A  N  T>     B  A  C  C.)  N  . 


AN  ADDRESS 


ON    THE 


PROPRIETY  OF  CONTINUING  THE 


§0l0gicaISnrkg  rf  (K  afi&rraa 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  LEGISLATURE 


AT  SACRAMENTO,  THURSDAY  EVENING, 


January  30th,  1868: 


STo  fejfjt'cf)  are  apper.&fti : 

TWO    LETTERS    TO    THE    GOVERNOR   RELATIVE    TO    THE    PROGRESS    OF   THE    GEOLOGICAL    SURVEY 

COMMUNICATED   TO   THE   LEGISLATURES  OF  1865-6   AND    1867-8  J    ALSO,  THE   REPORT 

OF   THE   COMMISSIONERS    TO   MANAGE  THE  YOSEMITE  VALLEY   AND   THE 

MARIPOSA    BIG    TREE  GROVE,    FOR   THE   YEARS    1867-8: 


BY  J.    D.   WHITNEY, 

ST/ 


OF  THE 

UNIVERST 


SAN    FRANCISCO: 
TOWNE    AND     BACON. 

1868. 


/ 


ADDRESS. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Senate  and  Assembly  : 

For  the  fourth  time  I  am  summoned  to  appear  before  the  honora 
ble  Legislature  of  the  State  of  California  to  give  an  account  of  my 
stewardship ;  and,  embarrassed  as  I  am  between  the  desire  of  say 
ing  something  which  shall  both  interest  and  amuse,  and  that  of 
crowding  as  much  of  instructive  matter  as  possible  into  the  allotted 
hour,  I  feel  the  necessity  of  asking  your  attention  to  what  I  have  to 
say  as  a  matter  of  business,  even  if  I  should  not  succeed  in  invest 
ing  a  somewhat  dry  subject  with  the  graces  of  elocutionary  display. 
There  are  125,600  good  reasons  (almighty  good  ones  to  those  who 
worship  the  almighty  dollar)  why  I  should  be  heard,  since  those  fig 
ures  represent  the  amount  which  the  State  has  already  expended  on 
the  Geological  Survey,  and  if  the  money  has  been  misspent,  it  is  your 
duty  to  see  that  no  more  goes  the  same  way.  In  inviting  the 
State  Geologist,  therefore,  to  speak  for  himself,  you  have  taken  the 
shortest  and  most  direct  method  of  getting  at  the  exact  truth  in  this 
matter  ;  and  that  the  truth  should  be  got  at,  before  decisive  action  is 
had,  seems  to  me  no  more  than  is  reasonable  to  ask.  I  believe 
that,  without  exception,  whenever  there  has  been  any  opposition  to 
our  work,  it  has  come  from  those  who  have  taken  no  pains  to  inform 
themselves  as  to  its  real  nature,  from  those  who  have  never  set  foot 
in  our  office  to  examine  what  was  going  on  there,  and  who  have  thus 
been  actuated  by  blind  prejudice  rather  than  by  any  real  desire  to 
economize ;  for,  not  to  put  too  fine  a  point  upon  it,  the  whole  ques 
tion  of  the  continuance  of  the  survey  is  simply  a  question  of  econo 
my  ;  it  is  just  this  —  does  it  pay,  or  does  it  not  pay  ?  There  is,  I 
imagine,  hardly  a  man  in  the  State  who  would  venture  to  oppose  the 
continuance  of  the  survey  on  any  other  ground  than  that  of  economy. 

178767 


Not  a  whisper  of  opposition  has  ever  been  raised  against  the  work, 
which  has  quietly  and  effectively  been  going  on  for  the  last  twenty 
years  on  our  coast,  at  an  annual  cost  ten  times  greater  than  that 
of  the  Geological  Survey,  but  at  the  expense  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  object  of  which  is  to  give  to  this  State,  and  all  who  need  it, 
a  map  of  the  line  along  which  old  Ocean  thunders  against  our  rocky 
shores.  No  ;  the  money  does  not  come  directly  out  of  our  pockets, 
let  the  great  work  go  on ;  we  see  its  value  and  approve  its  progress. 
But  the  Geological  Survey — that  is  quite  another  thing  :  getting 
information  gratis,  and  paying  for  the  same,  are  two  essentially  dif 
ferent  institutions. 

A  bill  has  been,  or  is  to  be,  introduced,  I  am  told,  abolishing 
the  State  Geologist  and  consigning  him  to  the  tomb  of  the 
Capulets.  This  seems  to  me  decidedly  a  work  of  supererogation, 
since  that  unfortunate  officer  is,  to  speak  metaphorically,  already  in 
the  last  gasp  of  dissolution.  If  the  Act  is  to  be  of  any  value  it 
must  be  passed  in  a  hurry,  or  you  will  be  hanging  a  man  who  has 
just  died  of  starvation.  The  train  can  be  stopped  just  as  well,  and 
with  less  damage  to  the  property  of  the  State  which  is  on  board,  by 
putting  no  more  wood  under  the  boiler  and  shutting  off  steam  grad 
ually,  as  by  putting  a  rail  on  the  track  and  thus  throwing  the  engine 
off  and  smashing  things  generally. 

At  the  time  of  commencing  the  survey,  I  had  the  honor  of  deliv 
ering  my  inaugural  address  before  the  Legislature,  and  in  this  I  gave, 
in  a  highly  condensed  form,  a  history  of  the  development  of  the 
mineral  resources  of  the  United  States  with  special  reference  to  what 
had  been  accomplished  in  this  behalf  by  the  different  State  Geologi 
cal  Surveys.  Having  glanced  at  the  condition  of  the  mining  interests 
of  this  country,  as  compared  with  those  of  other  parts  of  the  world, 
I  stated  what  the  Act  by  which  this  survey  was  authorized  called  for, 
and  laid  out  the  work  on  which  we  were  about  to  enter  as  well  as 
could  be  done  by  one  bringing  with  him  a  large  amount  of  experi 
ence  gathered  in  other  regions,  although  but  little  acquainted,  from 
personal  observation,  with  the  new  field  on  which  he  was  about  to 
enter. 

The  next  year,  having  the  honor  of  addressing  the  Legislature 
without  being  especially  called  on  by  that  body  to  select  any  particular 
subject,  I  endeavored  to  give  some  idea  of  the  nature  of  geological 
inquiries,  in  their  broadest  and  most  generally  attractive  direction, 
and  to  awaken  an  interest  in  our  work  by  setting  forth  some  of  the 
most  interesting  results  at  which  geologists  have  arrived  during  the 


few  years  just  past,  and  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  making  my 
lecture  a  sort  of  spelling  book  and  dictionary  of  our  future  reports ; 
but  not  letting  go  my  hold  on  my  audience  until,  as  in  duty  bound, 
I  had  said  a  few  words  in  regard  to  the  advantages  to  be  derived 
from  a  thorough  prosecution  of  the  work  on  which  we  had  then  fully 
entered. 

Once  more  the  State  Geologist  appeared  in  this  place  and  ad 
dressed  the  Legislature,  by  request,  on  the  question  of  the  establish 
ment  of  a  State  University  in  California,  giving  some  of  the  results 
acquired  by  many  years'  experience  as  a  pupil,  resident  graduate  or 
professor  in  several  institutions  of  learning  of  the  highest  rank,  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  including  Yale  and  Harvard  Colleges,  the 
School  of  Mines  in  Paris  and  the  Universities  of  Giessen  and  Berlin. 
On  both  these  last  occasions  I  endeavored  to  set  forth  in  as  clear 
a  light  as  possible  the  relations  of  the  survey  to  the  cause  of  higher 
education  in  this  State  and  on  the  Pacific  Coast  in  general — a  sub 
ject  which  is  by  no  means  exhausted,  and  on  which  I  will  ask  per 
mission,  before  closing,  to  add  a  few  more  last  words,  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  question  of  a  State  University  is  again  before  you  for 
discussion,  and  in  the  hope  that  my  ideas  may  be  found  not  unworthy 
of  being  heeded. 

On  this  solemn  occasion,  when  the  fate  of  the  survey  seems  about 
to  be  decided,  and  I,  perhaps,  may  be  preaching  its  funeral  sermon, 
if  I  were  to  search  for  a  text  on  which  to  base  my  discourse,  I  do  not 
know  that  I  could  find  one  better  than  that  containing  a  malediction 
on  the  man  who  looks  back  after  putting  his  hand  to  the  plow ;  for 
this  text  exactly  expresses  the  sentiment  which  has  actuated  me  in 
pushing  this  great  work  along  against  every  obstacle  —  want  of  sym 
pathy  among  the  people,  want  of  sufficient  appropriations  from  the 
Legislature,  want  of  sufficient  knowledge  on  the  part  of  many  to 
understand  the  real  extent  and  probable  value  of  our  results,  but  no 
want  of  misapprehension  and  misstatement  of  our  motives  and  actions, 
or  of  abuse  in  the  newspapers  for  not  doing  what  we  have  done,  and 
for  doing  that  which  we  have  not  done.  A  constitutional  antipathy  on 
the  part  of  its  chief  to  looking  back  after  having  laid  his  hand  on  the 
plow  is  the  one  effective  reason  why  this  survey  has  not  long  since  been 
wound  up  and  its  fossil  remains  left  in  the  pigeon-hole,  over  which, 
in  big  black  letters,  the  ominous  word  "  Fizzle  "  stands,  as  represent 
ing  a  great  undertaking  abandoned  for  want  of  pluck  and  energy  to 
see  it  through. 

It  has  been  repeatedly  thrown  in  our  teeth  that  we  were  trying  to 


accomplish  too  much ;  that  our  plans  were  too  extensive,  and  that 
we  were  aiming  at  something  it  was  beyond  our  power  or  that  of 
the  State  to  accomplish.  Let  us  see  :  the  Legislature  ordered  "  An 
accurate  and  complete  geological  survey  of  this  State,  with  proper 
maps  and  diagrams  thereof,  together  with  a  full  and  scientific  de 
scription  of  its  rocks,  fossils,  soils  and  minerals,  and  of  its  botanical 
and  zoological  productions."  I  quote  the  exact  language  of  the  Act. 
Suppose,  now,  it  had  read  thus :  "  The  State  Geologist  shall  make  a 
hasty  and  inaccurate  survey  of  the  State,  and  furnish  unreliable  and 
worthless  maps  of  the  same,  together  with  a  popular  and  amusing 
account  of  his  travels,  and  private  reports  to  mining  speculators,  on 
the  principle  of  the  bigger  the  fee  the  more  favorable  the  report." 
Does  any  one  suppose  that  a  scientific  man,  with  a  reputation  and 
a  conscience,  could  have  been  found  to  lend  his  name  to  such  a 
I  ridiculous  proposition  ?  And  the  scientific  man  who  should  make 
himself  responsible  for  the  statement  that  anything  but  a  hasfy  and 
inaccurate,  and  consequently  worthless,  survey  could  be  made  without 
much  time,  labor  and  money,  would  be  either  a  knave  or  a  fool,  or 
both. 

The  State  Geologist  is  not  responsible  for  the  plan  of  the  survey ; 
all  he  has  sought  to  do  was  to  carry  out  the  arduous  task  set  before 
him  by  the  Legislature  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  giving  the  best  years 
of  his  life  and  his  undivided  energies  to  the  work,  with  no  other  ob 
ject  in  view  than  that  of  so  executing  it  that  it  would  be  of  permanent 
value  to  the  State,  and  consequently  a  credit  to  himself. 

What,  then,  is  the  object  of  the  Geological  Survey,  and  for  what 
purpose  has  it  been  instituted?  This  question  I  will  endeavor  to 
answer,  and  I  will  then  show,  as  far  as  possible,  within  the  limitations 
imposed  on  me  by  time  and  place,  how  much  progress  has  been 
made  in  it ;  and  finally,  will  give  some  reasons  why,  as  I  think,  the 
work  should  be  continued  to  completion,  and  that  on  the  scale  and 
with  the  plan  on  which  it  was  started,  and  on  which  it  has  thus  far 
been  carried  on. 

The  object  of  the  Geological  Survey  may  be  succinctly  stated  in 
these  words  :  "  It  is  to  give  to  the  world,  and  especially  to  our  own 
citizens,  an  encyclopaedic  statement  of  the  natural  resources  and 
capabilities  of  the . State."  Its  scope  may,  perhaps,  be  better  com 
prehended  if  we  consider  what  a  private  individual  would  do  if  he 
were  to  come  into  possession,  by  legacy  or  otherwise,  of  a  vast  estate 
of  unexplored  and  unsurveyed  territory,  in  regard  to  the  value  of 
which  there  were  no  certain  data  in  existence.  If  unable  to  examine 


his  newly  acquired  property  himself,  he  would  hire  others  to  explore, 
survey  and  map  it,  to  investigate  its  capabilities  for  settlement  and 
its  resources  for  sustaining  a  population,  so  that  he  might  be  able  to 
cut  it  up  and  bring  it  into  the  market,  or  otherwise  to  make  it  avail 
able.  This  is  just  exactly  what  we  are  doing  for  the  State  ;  we  map 
its  surface,  examine  and  describe  its  natural  productions,  whether 
animal,  vegetable  or  mineral,  and  do,  in  a  large  way,  as  a  unit,  for 
the  State  and  all  the  inhabitants  in  it,  just  what  each  individual  would 
wish  to  have  done,  if  he  had  intelligence  enough  to  know  what  was 
for  his  own  interest  and  the  means  to  accomplish  it,  for  his  share  of 
the  great  estate  which  belongs  to  the  people  and  is  to  be  made 
available  for  their  benefit,  individually  and  collectively. 

The  object  of  the  Geological  Survey  being,  as  has  been  stated,  to 
furnish  an  encyclopaedia  of  the  resources  of  the  State,  the  mode  in 
which  this  object  was  to  be  best  accomplished,  taking  into  view  on 
the  one  hand  the  needs,  and  on  the  other  the  resources  available, 
gradually  shaped  itself  in  the  mind  of  the  individual  to  whom  the 
work  was  intrusted. 

As  thus  developed,  the  survey  is  divided  into  three  principal  de 
partments,  each  again  with  its  subordinate  divisions. 

The  three  main  divisions  are  :  Geography,  Geology,  and  Natural 
History.  The  first  includes  a  topographical  survey,  the  publication 
of  maps,  and  also  an  account  of  the  physical  geography  of  the  State. 
The  second  department  includes  general  geology,  economical  geol 
ogy,  and  palaeontology.  The  third,  botany  and  zoology.  Thus,  there 
are  seven  subdivisions  of  our  work,  each  requiring  one  or  more  vol 
umes  for  its  complete  illustration. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  state,  as  briefly  as  is  consistent  with  intelli 
gibility,  what  has  been  done  under  each  of  these  heads,  aiming  to  give 
some  general  idea  of  what  we  aspire  to  accomplish,  and  setting  forth 
what  remains  to  be  done  as  the  supplement  of  what  has  been  done. 
At  the  foundation  of  our  work  lies  the  topographical  survey,  for 
without  a  map  of  the  State  we  should  be  as  much  at  a  loss  to  de 
scribe  its  resources,  as  a  painter  would  be  in  working  without  a  can 
vas  on  which  to  embody  his  conceptions.  It  is  not  necessary,  and 
would  not  be  even  before  the  most  illiterate  audience,  to  enlarge  on 
the  necessity  and  importance  of  geographical  maps  to  every  country ; 
as  well .  might  I  undertake  to  demonstrate  the  desirability  of  put 
ting  up  the  frame  of  a  house  before  putting  on  the  clapboards  and 
shingles.  The  exact  stage  of  civilization  of  every  country  or  State 
can  at  once,  be  inferred  from  the  character  of  its  maps. 


8 

But  a  complete  and  accurate  survey  and  map  is  necessarily  a  work 
of  much  time  and  labor.  To  give  an  idea  of  what  has  been  ex 
pended  in  this  way  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  I  will  state  a  few 
facts  gathered  from  the  United  States  Coast  Survey  Report  for  1858. 

The  total  area  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire 
land  is  about  120,000  square  miles,  or  40,000  less  than  that  of  Cali 
fornia.  The  entire  cost  of  the  topographical  surveys  of  that  coun 
try  had  been,  up  to  1854,  $12,000,000.  And  to  complete  the  work, 
$20,000,000  more  was  required  ;  3,500  persons  were  engaged  on  the 
survey  at  one  time.  This  is  exclusive  of  what  was  being  spent  at 
the  same  time  on  the  geological  and  hydrographical  surveys. 

The  survey  of  France  —  an  empire  about  one-fifth  larger  than  our 
State — was  commenced  in  1818,  on  an  estimate  of  thirty  years  for 
the  time  required  to  complete  it  and  an  expense  of  $20,000,000  ; 
2,500  men,  besides  laborers,  have  been  employed  in  the  work. 

Massachusetts,  with  an  area  only  one-twentieth  that  of  California, 
spent  more  on  her  geographical  map  than  our  whole  survey  has  cost, 
and  that  more  than  thirty  years  ago. 

It  may  be  said,  however,  what  is  the  use  of  parading  these  figures, 
which  seem  to  demonstrate  that  the  possession  of  a  good  map  is 
something  that  we  cannot  aspire  to  ?  To  this,  I  reply,  in  the  first 
place,  that  we  are  doing  this  work  on  a  very  limited  scale,  as  regards 
expenditure,  and  that  we  shall  accomplish  a  great  deal  with  a  com 
paratively  small  amount  of  money ;  next,  that  if  it  is  not  done  by  the 
State  it  will  be  attempted  to  be  done  by  individuals,  and  the  result 
will  be  that  no  good  map  will  ever  be  -obtained  ;  while,  in  reality,  a 
much  greater  expenditure  of  money  will  be  made.  Private  parties 
will  be  continually  getting  out  new  maps,  each  one  of  which  will  be 
a  little  more  of  an  approximation  to  the  truth,  but  at  the  best  ex 
tremely  defective ;  while  the  public  will  be  continually  buying  these 
maps  as  they  appear,  rejecting  the  old  ones  already  on  hand,  in  the 
vain  hope  that  each  new  one  will  be  sufficient  for  their  needs — a 
system  which  will  be  equivalent  to  laying  the  people  of  the  State 
under  a  perpetual  tax  for  the  benefit  of  a  few  map  makers,  who  work 
without  ever  having  any  prospect  of  attaining  satisfactory  results. 
Those  who  have  not  examined  into  the  matter  have  little  idea  how 
large  sums  are  spent  in  this  way  in  the  State.  I  consider  myself  safe 
in  stating,  that  an  amount  greater  than  the  entire  cost  of  the  survey 
has  been  paid  out,  during  the  time  our  work  has  been  going  on,  for 
the  imperfect  maps  which  have  been  issued.  And  this  state  of 
things  will  go  on  indefinitely,  unless  put  a  stop  to  by  the  State  by 


continuing  our  work  to  completion ;  because  it  is  for  the  interest  of 
the  parties  engaged  in  this  business  to  have  an  excuse  for  issuing 
new  maps  as  often  as  possible,  just  as  milliners  and  dealers  in  dry 
goods  arrange  their  business  so  that  the  fashions  may  change  every 
three  months  at  least,  ostensibly  for  the  benefit  of  the  ladies,  but 
really  for  their  own,  and  to  the  great  detriment  of  the  unfortunate 
husbands. 

It  may  be  said,  also,  that  the  United  States  surveys  will  give  us, 
eventually,  a  correct  map  of  the  State,  and  that  it  is  therefore  un 
necessary  for  us  to  do  it :  this  is  not  the  case,  for  a  most  careful  ex 
amination  of  the  United  States  work  shows  clearly  that  it  can  never, 
in  a  mountainous  country  like  California,  be  coaxed  into  anything 
like  a  permanently  valuable  map.  The  town  and  section  lines  are 
run  in  the  valleys,  it  is  true,  and  were  this  State  a  vast  plain,  these 
lines  would  give  us  a  general  idea  of  the  country,  as  they  have  in 
the  great  Mississippi  Valley ;  but,  in  a  region  like  our  State,  of  which 
less  than  one-fifth  of  the  surface  is  plain  or  valley,  they  are  of  no  ac 
count  at  all,  especially  as  topography  is  no  part  of  the  idea  of  the 
Government  in  having  the  lines  run,  while  the  work  itself  (most  of  it, 
at  least)  is  so  carelessly  and  even  fraudulently  done  that  it  is  impos 
sible  to  make  it  fit  together.  In  making  accurate  surveys  of  regions 
where  the  town  and  section  lines  have  been  run  by  the  Government, 
we  have  found  sometimes  that  a  line  supposed  to  be  a  mile  in 
length,  and  measured  as  such  in  the  United  States  linear  survey,  was 
in  reality  a  mile  and  three-quarters  long,  so  that  the  net-work  of 
Government  lines,  when  laid  down  on  the  paper  as  they  actually  are, 
and  not  as  they  profess  to  be,  look  somewhat  as  a  gridiron  struck  by 
lightning  might  be  supposed  to.  This  need  not  always  be  the  fault 
of  the  surveyor,  as  the  system  itself  is  one  that  is  not  in  the  slightest 
degree  applicable  to  the  survey  of  mountainous  countries.  In  the 
southern  part  of  this  State  millions  of  dollars  have  been  paid  for 
surveys  which  were  in  reality  never  executed,  as  we  find,  when  we  go 
over  the  ground,  that  there  is  not  the  least  resemblance  between  the 
topography  as  laid  down  on  the  official  maps  and  that  which  our 
work  shows  it  to  be. 

Our  plan  of  operations  and  publication  has  been  carefully  adjusted 
to  meet  the  wants  and  the  means  of  the  State.  We  propose  to  pub 
lish  maps  on  different  scales,  all  accurate  as  far  as  they  go,  but,  of 
course,  with  a  varying  amount  of  detail,  to  suit  the  condition  of  dif 
ferent  sections,  basing  the  amount  of  detail  on  the  density  of  the 
population  of  the  section  mapped.  For  the  whole  State  we  take  a 


10 

s<5ale  of  ten  or  twelve  miles  to  the  inch,  which  will  give  us  a  map 
about  five  feet  square,  and  as  large  a  one  as  can  conveniently  be 
used  for  a  wall  map  for  schools  and  for  the  people  at  large.  For  the 
central  portion  of  the  State  we  take  a  scale  of  six  miles  to  the  inch, 
which  gives'  us  four  times  the  area*  of  the  other.  This  central  map 
embraces,  only  one-third  the  area  of  the  State,  but  it  includes  over 
ninety  per  cent,  of  the  population.  This  map  is  well  .under  way,  the 
field-work  being  about  four-fifths  and  the  drawing  one-half  done.  It 
can  be  completed  entirely  in  the  next  two  years,  with  a  reasonable 
appropriation,  and  when  done  will  be  the  largest  inland  piece  of 
mapTWork  yet  undertaken  in  the  country,  as  it  will  give  the  details  of 
the  topography  of  80,000  square  miles  of  territory — an  area  nearly 
twice  that  of  Ohio.  The  same  scale  is  adopted  for  the  Coast  Ranges 
south  of  Monterey  as  far  as  Los  Angeles,  and  this  ma'p  is  about  two- 
thirds  completed. 

For  the  most  thickly  settled  parts  of  the  State  we  have  adopted  a 
much  larger  scale,  of  two  miles  to  an  inch  namely,  giving  an  area  of 
nine  times  that  of  the  last  mentioned  map  for  the  same  territory. 
Of  the  work  done  on  this  scale  you  have  before  you  a  sample,  which 
will  render  it  unnecessary  for  me  to  go  into  any  details  in  regard  to 
it,  and  which  will  enable  every  man  to  judge  for  himself  of  the  value 
of  the  survey  maps.  The  one  in  question  is  the  Map  of  the  Vicinity 
of  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  of  which  a  large  supply  is  now  on  the 
way  from  New  York,  in  different  styles  of  mounting. 

Of  the  belt  of  mining  counties  along  the  Sierra  Nevada,  three 
maps  on  this  scale  are  in  preparation  :  one,  that  of  Plumas  and 
Sierra,  is  done  as  to  the  field-work,  and  the  drawing  of  it  will  be 
completed  during  the  winter,  so  that  it  can  be  engraved  next  summer 
if  our  work  goes  on.  The  central  counties,  from  Nevada  to  Cala- 
veras,  are  also  well  under  way,  and  the  southern  begun  ;  the  rate  of 
progress  will  depend,  of  course,  on  the  amount  of  funds  provided  by 
this  Legislature  for  the  continuance  of  our  work. 

According  to  my  calculations  the  whole  of  the  map-work  can  be 
completed  in  four  years,  if  pushed  with  vigor,  and  I  consider  that, 
taking  all  things  into  consideration,  it  may  be  considered  now  as 
nearly  half  done.  The  question,  therefore,  before  you  is,  not  whether 
a  topographical  survey  of  the  State  shall  be  made ;  but  whether,  one 
having  been  commenced  on  the  authority  of  one  and  continued  on 
that  of  four  successive  Legislatures  until  nearly  half  done,  it  shall  be 
abandoned  just  as  its  results  are  beginning  to  be  laid  before  the 
people. 


1 1 

It 'is  intended  that  all  the  maps  published  by  the  Survey  shall  be 
sold  singly,  mounted  according  to  the  fancy  of  the  purchaser,  or  in 
plain  sheets,  and  that  they  shall  all,  at  the  close  of  the  work,  be 
collected  and  bound  into  a  volume  forming  one  of  the  series  of  our 
Report.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  they  will  form  a  series  of  which 
the  State  may  be  proud,  and  which  will  be  considered  by  persons  ac 
quainted  with  such  matters  as  fully  repaying  the  entire  cost  of  the 
survey.  With  the  aid  of  our  maps,  each  county  can,  by  the  help  of 
the  County  Surveyor,  and  at  "a  comparatively  trifling  expense,  have  a 
special  county  map  of  its  own,  on  which  such  items  may  be  inserted 
as  are  peculiarly  desirable  for  county  purposes,  and  which  can  be 
taken  from  the  official  records  with  the  sanction  of  the  Supervisors. 
The  geographical  discoveries  of  the  Survey  in  this  State  have  been 
of  great  interest,  having  brought  to  light  m.uch  that  was  new  and 
curious  in  regard  to  the  peaks,  passes,  mountains,  and  valleys  of  the 
Coast  Ranges  and  the  Sierra.  We  have  opened  a  new  region  to  the 
traveller  and  the  tourist,  as  large  as  Switzerland,  of  which  the  mount 
ain  peaks  surpass  those  of  the  Alps  in  elevation,  and  which  in 
grandeur  of  scenery  is  without  a  parallel  on  the  continent.  If  this 
region  had  ever  been  explored  or  visited  by  any  one  before  us,  no 
record  exists  of  such  exploration,  nor  had  ever  one  word  been  writ 
ten  or  published  in  regard  to  it,  until  the  Geological  Survey  made  its 
existence  known.  And  let  not  the  importance  of  such  discover 
ies  sbe  under-estimated.  Few  persons  who  have  not  turned  their 
thoughts  in  that  direction,  with  some  knowledge  of  what  is  going  on 
in  other  parts  of  the  world,  have  any  proper  idea  of  the  real  value 
to  the  State,  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view,  of  its  natural  scenery. 
Superficial  observers  may  not  recognize  the  fact  that  the  picturesque 
is  an  element  in  the  resources  of  the  State  as  much,  if  not  in  as 
great  a  degree,  as  its  agricultural  and  mineral  capacity.  The  time 
will  come  when  the  money  brought  into  this  State  by  pleasure 
travellers  will  be,  if  not  as  important  an  element  in  our  prosperity 
as  it  is  in  Switzerland,  at  least  no  mean  addition  to  our  resources. 
By  opening  up  our  grand  scenery,  describing  and  mapping  our 
most  picturesque  regions,  and  spreading  a  knowledge  of  them 
through  the  world,  the  survey  has  done  the  State  a  great  pecun 
iary  service,  which  will  be  recognized  in  the  future  if  it  is  not 
now. 

The  results  obtained  in  the  department  of  Physical  Geography, 
such  as  the  elevations  of  towns,  mining  camps,  valleys,  mountains 
and  passes,  the  distribution  and  character  of  animal  life,  forest  and 


12 

plant  vegetation,  climatological  data,  circumstances  bearing  on  agri 
cultural  capacity,  and  many  other  points  of  this  kind,  are  all  of  great 
value,  not  only  scientifically,  but  practically.  The  records  preserved 
in  the  office  of  the  survey  are  constantly  being  consulted  by  those 
who  are  seeking  information  in  regard  to  all  kinds  of  public  im 
provements  on  this  coast ;  and  if  one-half  those  who  have  thus  been 
benefited  by  our  work  could  appear  before  you  and  give  their  testi 
mony,  I  have  little  doubt  but  that  it  would  furnish  an  overwhelming 
mass  of  evidence  in  our  favor. 

In  the  geological  department  of  the  survey,  with  its  subdivisions 
of  general  geology,  economical  geology,  and  palaeontology,  good 
progress  has  been  made,  and  the  way  prepared  to  make  a  much 
more  rapid  advancement  in  the  future,  if  we  have  the  necessary  pe 
cuniary  assistance.  It  seems  almost  an  absurdity,  at  this  late  day, 
to  be  arguing  in  favor  of  a  geological  examination  of  a  great  and 
little  known  mining  country  like  that  of  California.  The  fact 
that  such  surveys  have  been  made  in*  all  civilized  foreign  countries, 
and  in  nearly  every  one  of  the  United  States,  in  many  of  which 
this  kind  of  investigations  had  not  one-tenth  part  of  the  interest 
which  they  have  here,  is  sufficient  prima  facie  evidence  in  favor  of 
their  value.  The  fact,  also,  that  five  successive  Legislatures  have, 
after  due  investigation,  given  their  verdict  on  the  importance  of  this 
survey,  seems  to  me  to  offer  a  very  fair  guarantee  that  it  was  under 
taken  with  sufficient  reason,  and  the  only  question  which  ought 
legitimately  to  come  up,  at  the  present  time,  would  be :  Is  the  work 
being  carried  on  in  a  satisfactory  manner  ? 

As,  however,  each  Legislature  has  the  power  of  upsetting  that 
which  has  been  done  or  begun  by  its  predecessors ;  and  as,  there 
fore,  the  original  question  of  the  propriety  of  such  a  work  as  ours 
must  be  started  anew  and  discussed  at  each  session,  regardless  of  all 
previous  indorsements,  public  or  private,  I  will  take  the  liberty  of 
stating  once  more  what  the  special  aim  of  the  geological  part  of  the 
survey  is,  before  undertaking  to  give  an  account  of  the  progress 
made  in  that  department  of  our  work. 

The  strictly  geological  portions  of  the  survey  may  be  divided  into 
two  sections.  The  first  includes  the  general  geology  and  palaeon 
tology  ;  the  second,  the  economical,  or  applied,  geology.  Under  the 
first  division  we  include  all  that  relates  to  the  general  geological 
structure  of  the  State,  while  the  second  embraces  the  practical  ap 
plication  of  the  information  thus  obtained  to  the  wants  and  uses  of 
the  people  in  the  arts,  manufactures  and  commerce.  Under  the 


head  of  general  geology,  we  have  to  investigate  the  nature  of  the 
different  rock  formations  which  are  spread  out  in  the  valleys  or  piled 
up  in  the  immense  mountain  masses  which  traverse  the  State.  We 
endeavor  to  ascertain  of  what  materials  they  are  composed  ;  how 
originally  formed  or  deposited  ;  what  changes  they  have  undergone 
since  their  deposition,  and  by  what  agencies  these  changes  have  been 
brought  about.  We  search  for  and  describe  the  fossil  remains  which 
the  stratified  rocks  contain,  and  thus  are  enabled  to  compare  them 
with  the  formations  of  other  countries  and  to  fix  their  relation,  geo 
logical  age  and  position.  We  then  trace  over  the  surface  of  the 
State  and  lay  down  upon  the  map  the  range  and  extent  or  the  geo 
logical  distribution  of  the  different  systems  and  groups  of  rocks, 
and  exhibit  their  stratigraphical  relations,  or  position  with  regard  to 
each  other,  by  means  of  sections,  showing  the  configuration  of  the 
surface  and  the  character  of  the  rocks  beneath  it,  along  certain  lines 
measured  and  examined  for  the  purpose.  By  these  preliminary  op 
erations  we  are  prepared  with  the  necessary  basis  on  which  to  proceed 
with  the  next  great  division  of  our  work,  namely,  the  economical 
geology.  Without  this  scientific  part  of  the  survey,  the  practical 
would  have  no  permanent  value,  for  it  would  be  nothing  but  an  in 
coherent  mass  of  material  such  as  our  newspapers  are  filled  with, 
not  put  into  form  or  reduced  to  system,  so  as  to  be  generally  appli 
cable  and  easily  comprehended.  After  and  while  tracing  out  the 
various  geological  formations  and  getting  their  sequence  thoroughly 
established,  we  endeavor  to  discover  and  classify  the  metallic  and 
mineral  treasures  which  they  contain,  to  ascertain  their  position  and 
mode  of  occurrence,  or,  in  other  words,  to  gather  all  the  facts  neces 
sary  to  enable  us  to  determine  their  present  and  prospective  value, 
and  to  show  how  and  under  what  conditions  they  may  be  best  made 
available  for  the  industrial  purposes  of  life.  In  doing  this  we  fur 
nish  a  basis  for  detailed  explorations  for  further  deposits  of  metallic 
and  mineral  treasures,  by  limiting  the  field  for  research  for  numerous 
prospectors  always  engaged  in  the  search  for  useful  ores,  so  that 
every  man  will  be  working  where  his  labor  will  tell,  and  not  throwing 
it  away  in  undertakings  which  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  mode  of 
occurrence  and  geological  position  of  our  economically  valuable  ma 
terials  will  show  to  be  a  mere  waste  of  money,  time  and  energy.  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  millions  have  been  wasted  in  this  State, 
for  want  of  just  that  information  which  we  shall  be  prepared  to  sup 
ply,  and  which,  indeed,  we  have  already  supplied  to  a  considerable 
extent  to  those  asking  for  it.  Every  year  sees  an  addition  to  the 


'4 

number  of  persons  availing  themselves  of  information,  which  we 
are  always  ready  to  give,  on  matters  connected  with  the  geological 
mode  of  occurrence  and  the  probable  value  of  deposits  of  all  kinds 
of  metal  and  mineral ;  and  I  know  that,  in  some  cases,  our  advice  has 
been  followed  with  manifest  advantage,  and  that,  as  time  goes  on 
and  demonstrates  the  reliability  of  our  work,  and  the  substantiality 
of  the  basis  on  which  our  opinions  are  founded,  the  survey  will  be 
more  and  more  efficient  as  a  break  on  the. wheel  of  reckless  mining 
expenditures.  If  this  survey  could  have  been  begun  at  an  early  pe 
riod  in  the  development  of  the  State,  and  have  firmly  established 
itself  in  the  confidence  of  the  people  at  the  time  of  the  last  great 
mining  excitement  on  this  coast,  of  what  incalculable  value  might  it 
not  have  been  !  I  am  aware  that  there  are  persons  so  little  acquainted 
with  the  principles  of  political  economy  and  the  laws  which  govern 
the  progress  of  nations,  as  to  think  that  money  expended  in  the 
State  is  a  benefit  to  it,  whether  any  results  of  permanent  value  be 
attained  or  not  by  such  expenditure.  Benjamin  Franklin  had  a  clearer 
idea  of  the  truth  when  he  put  into  the  mouth  of  Poor  Richard  his 
famous  saying  :  "  A  penny  saved  is  a  penny  earned."  It  is  only  in 
communities  where  the  pence  are  saved  that  the  great  results  of  a 
permanent  and  high  civilization  are  obtained.  To  insure  permanent 
working  and  economical  development  of  what  is  discovered,  by  giv 
ing  every  one  the  means  of  knowing  beforehand  how  his  discoveries 
may  be  turned  to  the  best  account,  how  he  can  best  open  his  mine, 
how  treat  his  ores,  what  form  to  give  his  products  and  where  and 
in  what  quantity  they  can  be  disposed  of —  these  are  some  of  the 
more  important  points  to  be  gained  by  the  development  of  that  de 
partment  of  our  work  which  is  included  under  the  designation  of 
Economical  Geology.  The  services  which  we  shall  be  able  to  render, 
in  this  line,  will  become  every  day  more  important,  as  our  basis  of 
experience  is  enlarged  and  as  it  becomes  more  clearly  understood 
that  our  opinions  are  disinterested,  and  that  we  have  no  other  objects 
in  view  than  the  welfare  of  the  State  and  the  development  of  its 
mineral  resources.  In-  our  volumes  devoted  to  Economical  Geology 
we  shall  throw  all  possible  light  on  these  subjects,  and  it  will  not  be 
our  fault  if  the  man  about  to  embark  in  any  undertaking  connected 
with  ores  or  mineral  substances  shall  not  find  in  our  book  something 
which  shall  materially  aid  him  in  his  undertaking,  or  at  least  prevent 
a  foolish  waste  of  money  on  the  impracticable.  It  is,  in  every  respect, 
desirable  also  that  the  resources  of  the  State  should  be  made  known 
to  the  world,  under  official  guarantee  of  correctness,. so  that  not  only 


15 

our  own  capitalists,  but  those  of  other  countries,  should  have  opened 
to  them  a  field  for  investment,  in  regard  to  which .  they  may  under 
stand  that  they  have  some  substantial  basis  of  facts  and  reliable 
data  for  generalization,  and  not  feel  that  they  are  entering  blindfolded 
into  a  hap-hazard  game  of  speculation,  as  is  too  often  the  case  when 
putting  their  money  into  mines  in  regions  known  only  from  the  de 
scriptions  of  those  personally  and  pecuniarily  interested. 

In  the  geological  department  proper  of  the  survey,  one  volume 
has  already  been  published,  which,  under  the  title  of  "  A  Report  of 
Progress  and  Synopsis  of  the  Field-work  from  1861  to  1864,  inclu 
sive,"  gives  the  results  of  a  general  reconnaissance  of  the  State,  both 
geological  and  geographical.  In  this  volume  the  main  features  of 
our  physical  geography  and  geology  will  be  found  delineated,  exclu 
sively  from  the  results  of  our  own  observations,  and  with  them  is 
incorporated  a  considerable  amount  of  general  information  with 
regard  to  our  mineral  resources,  incidentally  brought  in,  as  also 
notices  of  our  natural  scenery,  botany,  distribution  of  forests,  etc., 
all  of  which  subjects  will  eventually  be  more  elaborately  treated  in 
special  volumes ;  so  that  this  might  be  considered  rather  in  the  light 
of  a  temporary  report  than  as  a  part  of  a  final  series.  To  close  the 
general  geology  another  volume  will  be  required,  and  is  in  process 
of  preparation.  This  will  give  a  systematic  and  thorough  review  of 
the  geological  structure  of  the  State,  and  will  be  fully  illustrated  by 
geological  maps  and  sections,  which  were  necessarily  wanting  in  the 
first  volume,  and  which  will  be  a  text-book  for  the  student  in  this 
department,  and  a  reliable  guide  to  those  who,  from  whatever  motive, 
shall  desire  to  make  themselves  acquainted  with  the  course  of  events 
which  has  given  its  present  configuration  and  internal  structure  to 
that  part  of  the  continent  which  we  inhabit. 

In  Palaeontology,  we  have  published  one  volume,  and  another  is 
well  on  the  way,  a  considerable  part  of  the  plates  being  already 
engraved  and  the  'text  stereotyped.  A  third  volume  will  be  neces 
sary  to  enable  us  to  describe  the  remarkable  animals  which  lived  on 
this  coast  just  before  the  present  epoch,  including  the  elephant,  mas 
todon,  camel,  tapir,  horse  (of  several  species  now  extinct),  buffalo, 
rhinoceros,  hippopotamus,  and  others  of  remarkable  and  little-known 
genera ;  also,  the  forest  vegetation  of  that  epoch,  of  which  the 
remains  now  lie  buried  in  our  deep  gravel  deposits,  and  which  dif 
fered  entirely  from  that  which  we  now  see  occupying  the  flanks  of 
the  Sierra ;  also,  the  microscopic  organisms  of  which  a  large  portion 
of  our  rocks  are  almost  entirely  made  up,  and  which  can  be  shown 


i6 

to  have  a  very  important  bearing  in  an  economical  point  of  view,  as 
constituting  the  origin  and  source  of  the  bituminous  matter,  asphal- 
tum  and  petroleum,  so  widely  distributed  over  the  State. 

In  the  department  of  Economical  Geology,  less  progress  has  been 
made  than  would  be  desirable,  partly  on  account  of  the  necessity  of 
its  being  preceded  by  the  other  departments,  in  order  that  it  may 
have  a  safe  basis  on  which  to  stand  ;  but  more  because  the  appropri 
ations  have  been  insufficient.  It  stands  to  reason  that  the  necessary 
assistance  to  thoroughly  work  up  this  department  cannot  be  had  with 
out  paying  for  it.  Men  qualified  to  do  this  work  can  obtain  large 
salaries  as  heads  of  mines  and  mills ;  and,  if  asked  to  give  their  ser 
vices  to  the  State  for  half  or  quarter  of  what  they  can  obtain  else 
where,  are  very  apt  to  see  it  in  another  light  than  that  of  exclusive 
devotion  to  science  regardless  of  personal  considerations.  And  if 
I  should  take  young  men  and  educate  them  until  they  became  com 
petent  for  the  work,  I  very  much  fear  that  the  result  would  recall  to 
mind  the  modern  reading  of  an  old  text :  "  Train  up  a  child  and 
away  he  goes." 

The  first  volume  in  this  department  is,  however,  well  under  way 
and  can  soon  be  put  to  press ;  it  will  contain  the  non-metalliferous 
minerals  occurring  in  the  State,  that  is  to  say,  all  materials  used  as 
fuel,  for  illuminating,  or  for  building  purposes,  including  coal,  asphal- 
tum,  petroleum,  lime,  cement,  plaster,  marble,  granite,  and  the  whole 
long  list  of  substances  of  mineral  origin  used  in  the  arts,  and  not  in 
the  metallic  form.  A  most  careful  examination  has  been  made  of 
all  localities  where  bituminous  materials  of  any  kind  occur  in  con 
siderable  quantity ;  specimens  have  been  collected  and  subjected  to 
chemical  analysis ;  new  processes  have  been  contrived  for  making 
them  available,  and  the  results,  when  fully  reported,  cannot  fail  to 
interest  all  who  are  turning  their  attention  in  the  direction  of  avail 
able  fuel  and  illuminating  materials.  The  coal  interests  of  this 
coast  are  also  of  great  importance  ;  they  require  and  have  received  a 
large  share  of  attention. 

We  come  next  to  the  Natural  History  department  of  the  survey. 
This  is  divided  into  botany  and  zoology,  as  before  stated,  having  for 
its  object  a  complete  description  of  all  the  forms  of  animal  and  veg 
etable  life  occurring  naturally  within  our  borders. 

The  department  of  Botany  was  under  the  direction  of  Professor 
Brewer,  now  of  Yale  College,  while  he  was  in  this  State,  and  is  now, 
so  far  as  the  working  up  of  the  flowering  plants  and  publication  of 
the  results  obtained  is  concerned.  Ever  since  the  commencement  of 


the  Survey,  a  vigorous  collection  of  materials  has  been  going  on,  first 
under  the  direction  of  Professor  Brewer,  and  now  of  Mr.  Bolander. 
This  collecting,  carried  on  in  all  quarters  of  the  State,  has  furnished  a 
vast  mass  of  materials,  including  a  great  number  of  entirely  new  gen 
era  and  species,  and  these  have  been  distributed  to  the  most  eminent 
botanists  in  the  country  to  be  worked  up — an  operation  which  has 
been  going  on  steadily  for  the  last  three  or  four  years — the  work 
being  so  far  advanced  towards  completion  that  it  is  thought  that  the 
volume  of  flowering  plants  may  be  put  to  press  towards  the  close  of 
the  present  year ;  but  that,  at  all  events,  it  can  be  finished  and  printed 
in  time  for  delivery  to  the  next  Legislature. 

In  Zoology  there  are  four  volumes  under  way,  and  in  different 
stages  of  preparation,  the  text  of  all  being  well  advanced,  and  nothing 
required  to  enable  them  to  be  put  to  press  excepting  the  completion 
of  the  illustrations,  the  drawing  and  engraving  of  which  has  been 
going  on  for  more  than  three  years. 

Having  now  given  a  rapid  sketch  of  the  general  progress  of  our 
work,  and  shown  something  of  the  results  accomplished  in  each  de 
partment,  and  of  what  more  is  proposed  to  be  done,  provided  we  are 
furnished  with  the  means,  I  will  proceed  to  discuss  a  few  points  con 
nected  with  the  existence  and  completion  of  the  Survey,  a  little  more 
in  detail  than  I  have  been  able  to  do  in  the  preceding  systematic  re 
view. 

Assuming  that  the  plan  of  the  Survey  is  a  good  one,  and  judi 
ciously  contrived,  the  question  arises — how  is  it  being  carried  out  ? 
Forming  a  plan  is  one  thing,  and  executing  it  another.  To  this 
question  I  can  only  reply  that  our  work,  as  far  as  accomplished,  has 
been  submitted  to  those  who  would  unanimously,  among  scientific 
men,  be  regarded  as  best  qualified  to  judge  of  such  matters,  and  has 
met  with  their  warm  and  decided  approval.  I  have  assumed  that  if 
the  survey  was  done  in  such  a  manner  as, to  win  the  applause  of  the 
highest  authority  in  science,  in  this  country,  that  I  might  consider  it 
as  being  well  done.  And  when  I  say  highest  authorities,  I  mean 
such  men  as  Professor  Bache,  the  late  eminent  Superintendent  of  the 
Coast  Survey,  Dana  of  Yale  College,  Agassiz  and  Gray,  of  Harvard, 
Henry  and  Baird  of  the  Smithsonian,  Lea  and  Leidy  of  Philadelphia, 
Guyot  of  Princeton,  etc.  From  all  of  these,  letters  are  on  file  at  our. 
office,  expressing  sentiments  of  the  warmest  interest  and  the  most 
entire  satisfaction  in  regard  to  our  work,  and  which  are  at  the  service 
of  any  member  of  the  Legislature  to  read  and  examine.  I  will  take 
the  liberty  of  reading  part  of  one  myself.  It  is  from  one  of  the 
3 


i8 

heads  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  addressed  to  the  State 
Geologist,  under  date  of  October  18,  1865  : 

"  Volume  I  of  the  Geological  Report  of  California  is  a  work  of 
which  the  State  may  well  be  proud,  as,  while  of  almost  unrivaled 
typographical  execution,  its  contents  are  of  the  first  order  of  scientific 
merit.  It  needs  but  the  full  completion  of  your  plans  in  regard  to  the 
entire  series  to  give  to  the  Pacific  slope  of  the  United  States  an 
encyclopaedia  of  information  respecting  its  natural  and  physical  his 
tory  far  more  perfect  and  complete  than  is  possessed  by  any  other 
State  in  the  Union,  New  York  even  not  excepted.  You  may  safely 
assure  the  Governor  and  Legislature  of  California — if  such  indorse 
ment  is  necessary — that  there  are  no  dissentient  views  among  the 
men  of  science  here  as  regards  their  interest  in  the  Survey  in  its 
various  branches,  and  their  satisfaction  with  the  character  of  its 
plans  and  execution,  as  far  as  it  has  gone." 

To  this  it  might,  however,  be  answered  by  the  opponents  of  the 
Survey  that  a  jury  of  scientific  men  is  not  the  proper  kind  of  a  one  to 
sit  in  judgment  on  this  work.  If  that  be  the  case,  then  I  am  not  the 
proper  kind  of  a  person  to  carry  on  the  Survey ;  and  to  adopt  such 
a  principle,  or  suggest  any  other  tribunal  than  a  scientific  one, 
would  be  at  once  to  destroy  all  that  gives  character  and  respectability 
to  our  work.  We  assume  that  those  men  who  have  devoted  their 
whole  lives  to  investigations  of  this  kind,  and  attained  the  highest 
positions  and  universal  recognition  as  representative  men  in  science, 
are  best  qualified  to  judge  in  regard  to  the  value  of  work  done  in 
their  respective  departments,  and  that  if  the  authority  of  their  opin- 
ions'is  not  appreciated  by  the  people  at  large,  it  is  because  the  people 
have  not  arrived  at  a  sufficiently  high  stage  of  educational  develop 
ment  to  understand  what  is  for  their  own  interests.  But  I  do  not 
mean  to  be  understood  as  saying  that  non-professional  men  have  not 
given  us  their  hearty  support  in  many  cases,  and  that  the  Survey  is 
only  appreciated  by  the  few.  On  the  contrary,  we  have  received  the 
most  satisfactory  assurances  of  sympathy  and  regard  for  our  work, 
and  of  its  practical  value,  from  many  who  would  not  claim  to  be  con 
sidered  as  other  than  practical  men  themselves.  The  only  difficulty, 
as  before  hinted,  has  been  to  induce  the  opponents  of  the  Survey  to 
give  our  work  a  candid  examination,  or  *ny  examination  at  all.  They 
have  conceived  a  blind  prejudice,  based  on  some  little  matters  which 
have  no  relation  to  the  real  merits  or  plan  of  the  survey,  and  have 
acted  accordingly,  entirely  regardless  of  the  fact  that,  if  successful  in 
their  opposition,  they  would  be  incurring  an  amount  of  odium  which 


19 

every  year's  advance  of  the  State  toward  a  higher  plane  of  civilization 
would  not  fail  to  increase. 

The  question  of  the  establishment  of  a  State  University  is  again 
before  the  Legislature  of  California,  and  this  time  in  a  more  tangible 
form  than  ever  before.  Indeed  it  is  understood  that  a  site  has  been 
selected,  and  there  seems  to  be  a  general  calling  from  all  quarters 
for  some  positive  action  which  shall  set  the  wheels  in  motion.  In  view 
of  these  facts,  I  deem  it  more  than  ever  justifiable  in  me  to  call  atten 
tion  to  the  fact  that  the  Geological  Survey  is  a  necessary  preliminary 
to  the  establishment  of  a  University  which  can  claim  to  be  anything 
more  than  a  name. 

It  is  not  from  the  standpoint  of  a  Professor,  or  from  any  supposed 
right  to  be  heard,  based  on  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  organ 
ization  and  management  of  several  of  our  higher  institutions  of  learn 
ing,  including  both  those  connected  with  the  various  State  Govern 
ments,  and  those  independent  of  them — those  counting  the  years  of 
their  existence  by  hundreds,  and  the  amount  of  their  endowment  by 
millions,  and  those  whose  career  has  but  just  begun,  and  who  are  pro 
portionately  short  of  funds — it  is  not,  I  say,  on  any  such  grounds  as 
these  that  I  approach  the  subject;  but  simply  as  one  called  before 
you  to  defend  the  Geological  Survey,  and  who  desires,  as  one  of  the 
important  points  in  this  defense,  to  urge  upon  you  the  educational  re 
lations  of  our  proposed  work,  not  only  as  connected  with  the  proposed 
University,  but  with  all  our  schools  and  institutions  of  learning.  For 
I  take  it  that  there  is  no  institution  of  so  low  a  grade  that  the  leading 
facts  of  the  geography  of  the  State  should  not  be  taught  in  it,  and 
that  we  should  not  have  to  rise  very  high  in  order  to  come  to  those 
in  which  instruction  should  be  given  in  the  elements,  at  least,  of 
natural  history.  But  it  is  to  the  proposed  University  that  I  especially 
refer,  as  our  work  is  more  intimately  connected  with  that  than  with 
institutions  of  a  lower  grade. 

In  a  University  established  under  the  conditions  which  surround 
us  on  the  Pacific  coast,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  the  practical  will 
have  very  much  the  upper  hand  over  the  theoretical  and  abstruse  ; 
that  modern  languages  will  outweigh  the  ancient,  and  that  the  nat 
ural  and  physical  sciences  will  be  more  cultivated  than  psychology 
and  metaphysics.  There  will  be  little  call  for  Latin  and  less  for 
Greek ;  but  nature  will  be  interrogated,  and  everything  that  aids  in 
familiarizing  the  student  with  her  teachings  will  be  in  demand.  The 
scientific  branches  in  which  instruction  will  be  most  craved  by  the 
student,  will  certainly  be  physical  geography,  geology,  mineralogy, 


2O 

botany  and  zoology ;  these  at  least  will  be  departments  which  as 
much  if  not  more  than  any  other  it  will  be  necessary  to  have  filled, 
if  the  proposed  institution  is  to  have  any  rank  at  all,  or  to  be  in  any 
respect  up  to  the  standard  of  other  colleges,  universities  or  schools 
of  science.  Make  the  institution  as  practical  as  you  please,  lower 
its  grade  to  the  last  conceivable  degree,  still  the  great  fact  cannot 
be  got  over  that  something  has  to  be  taught  there  ;  that  there  must 
be  some  course  of  study,  and  that  whether  you  simplify  or  complicate 
the  programme,  the  already  mentioned  branches  will  be.  the  last  to 
be  omitted  from  it. 

Now  I  state  what  I  know  to  be  a  fact,  when'  I  assert  that  no 
one  of  the  branches  in  question  can  be  taught  in  any  other  than  the 
most  superficial  way  until  the  results  of  our  Survey  are  in  the  hands 
of  the  teachers.  This  statement  I  will  illustrate  by  reference  to  our 
botanical  work,  as  this  may  probably  be  better  understood  by  the 
people  generally  than  any  of  the  other'  departments  mentioned.  It 
will  probably  be  admitted  by  all  that  it  would  be  absolutely  neces 
sary  for  the  teacher  of  botany,  in  order  to  impart  to  the  student  any 
thing  more  than  the  merest  rudiments  of  the  science,  to  know  the 
names  and  position  in  the  system  of  the  plants  which  grow  in  his 
vicinity,  and  which  he  would  collect  and  use  for  illustration  of  his 
teachings,  and  which  his  pupils  would  bring  to  him  for  that  purpose. 
This  knowledge,  however,  is  an  impossibility  at  present ;  there  is  no 
botanist  in  the  State  who  can  name  the  plants  he  collects,  nor  is 
there  any  one  person  elsewhere  who  can  do  it  for  him. 

The  facts  are  simply  these  :  During  the  last  seventy  years,  more 
than  one  hundred  and  twenty  professional  botanists  and  collectors 
have  visited  parts  of  the  regions  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
more  than  seventy  of  them  have  traveled  in  California.  Their  col 
lections  have  gone  into  the  various  herbaria  of  this  country  and  of 
Europe,  and  the  printed  data  relating  to  them  are  scattered  through 
an  immense  number  of  volumes ;  so  that  if  any  one  were  to  begin 
and  make  a  complete  collection  of  them,  it  would  require  years  of 
labor  and  thousands  of  dollars  expenditure,  and,  even  with  the  most 
strenuous  exertions,  it  would  be  impossible  to  make  the  list  complete. 
But  if  this  could  be  done,  and  this  library  could  be  transferred  to 
the  Pacific  coast  and  placed  in  their  possession,  our  botanists  would 
still  be  unable  to  give  correct  names  to  their  specimens.  And  for 
these  reasons  :  not  unfrequently  several  collectors  have  obtained  the 
same  species  in  different  localities  and  seasons  and  in  varying  forms  ; 
specimens  thus  collected  have  been  referred  to  different  botanists  for 


21 

description,  the  amount  of  material  being  often  meager  and  insuffi 
cient,  and  the  results  have  been  published  at  places  widely  remote 
from  each  other.  Thus,  what  was  in  reality  one  and  the  same  spe 
cies,  has  often  several  names  attached  to  it ;  but  to  discover  this  fact 
and  clear  up  all  the  difficulties,  so  that  all  the  synonyms  should  be 
properly  arranged  under  the  real  name,  or  the  one  having  priority, 
according  to  the  universally  recognized  rules  of  scientific  nomencla 
ture,  requires  not  only  the  extensive  collections  of  the  Survey,  made 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  in  all  kinds  of  localities, 
and  under  all  conditions  of  growth,  but  also  an  actual  inspection 
and  diligent  study  of  the  original  specimens  collected  by  all  bot 
anists  prior  to  our  work.  These  are,  luckily,  mostly  accessible  in 
the  grand  herbarium  at  Cambridge,  which  Professor  Gray,  the  lead 
ing  botanist  of  the  country,  has  for  the  past  forty  years  teen  gather 
ing  together.  Without  the  aid  of  this  gentleman  it  would  be  impos 
sible  for  any  one  to  get  through  with  the  immense  undertaking  of 
bringing  order  into  the  chaos  of  California  botany.  And  not  only 
has  he  kindly  lent  us  the  use  of  his  herbarium  and  library,  and 
given  his  personal  attention  to  the  description  of  the  great  number 
of  new  plants  collected  by  our  parties,  but  the  same  may  be  said  of  ev 
ery  other  eminent  botanist  in  this  country:  Engelmann, Torrey, Eaton, 
Tuckerman,  Lesquereux  and  Thurber,  as  well  as  several  of  the  most 
distinguished  authorities  in  Europe,  have  lent  us  a  hand  in  unravel 
ing  the  twisted  skein,  and  one  gentleman  is  about  to  leave  his  home 
in  a  western  city  and  visit  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  comparing 
specimens  of  the  California  pines  and  oaks  with  the  authentically 
named  ones  existing  in  the  herbaria  in  England  and  on  the  Conti 
nent.  I  should  add,  lest  anybody's  sensibilities  be  alarmed  by  the 
excessive  expenditure,  that  he  receives  no  salary,  and  travels  at  his 
own  expense. 

We  shall  thus  have  a  work,  in  the  botanical  department,  in  which 
each  plant,  in  every  important  group  of  families,  will  be  authenti 
cally  named  by  the  highest  authority  in  that  section  of  the  science — a 
book  which  every  student  can  use  with  perfect  confidence  in  its 
reliability,  and  which  will  be  the  indispensable  guide  of  every  teacher 
of  the  science.  And  we  could  not  have  had  it  in  any  other  way  than 
this  :  it  required  a  combined  effort  of  all  the  botanists  in  the  coun 
try,  sanctioned  by  the  State,  to  do  this  work ;  and  with  all  the  facili 
ties  the  survey  affords,  this  task  is  an  arduous  one. 

The  same  thing  may  be  said  (mutatis  mutandis]  with  regard  to  the 
other  scientific  branches  mentioned.  I  will  not  tire  you  by  going 


22 

through  them  all,  but  will  merely  add  that  great  pains  have  been  taken 
with  the  illustrations  of  the  natural  history  volumes  to  make  them 
such  as  will,  while  possessing  a  high  scientific  value,  be  most  useful 
to  students.  And  at  the  same  time  economy  has  been  studied,  so 
that  I  am  fully  justified  in  assuring  you  that,  while  our  series  will  be 
more  complete  than  those  of  any  other  State,  they  will  also  have 
cost  much  less. 

In  fact,  this  idea  has  been  constantly  in  my  mind,  while  engaged 
in  the  Survey,  that  our  work  was  the  necessary  preliminary  of  the 
University  and  the  cultivation  of  science  on  this  coast  in  general,  and 
I  have  endeavored  so  to  shape  our  plans  that  when  our  task  has  been 
completed  the  way  shall  be  smoothed  for  others  to  carry  on- that  which 
we  have  begun  ;  for  so  inexhaustible  on  this  is  nature  in  her  ways  and 
works,  that  we  cannot  look  forward  to  any  time  when  the  student  can 
fold  his  hands  for  want  of  something  to  do,  in  the  way  of  enlarging 
the  boundaries  of  either  natural  or  physical  science. 

I  need  not  enlarge  on  the  importance  of  our  full  and  authentically 
named  collections,  in  the  various  departments,  to  the  State  Univer 
sity.  They  will  form  the  foundation  of  a  museum  invaluable  for  the 
purposes  of  instruction,  and  such  a  one  as  could  not  have  been 
brought  together  without  a  thorough  and  systematic  plan  of  oper 
ations.  The  collections  are  amply  sufficient  to  justify  their  being 
divided,  and  I  trust  that  when  they  pass  out  of  our  hands  they  may 
be  made  as  available  as  possible,  both  for  scientific  and  popular  in 
struction.  This  can  be  best  accomplished  by  giving  one  series  to 
the  University,  and  the  other  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  in  San 
Francisco,  in  which  latter  place  a  museum  will  be  accessible  to  a 
much  larger  number  of  persons  than  it  would  be  anywhere  else,  and 
where  our  materials  would  be  added  to  a  large  and  rapidly  increas 
ing  collection,  in  charge  of  the  only  scientific  association  on  the 
coast,  and  which,  in  time  and  with  the  growth  of  a  liberal  and  scien 
tific  spirit  in  this  State,  will  have  the  means  to  display  them  in  a 
suitable  manner  and  to  preserve  them  from  destruction. 

Finally,  I  conceive  that  the  Survey  ought  to  be  carried  on  because 
it  has  been  begun — not  only  because  it  has  been  indorsed  by  several 
successive  Legislatures,  and  by  eminent  scientific  authority  at  home 
and  abroad,  but  that  the  State  may  not  be  making  an  exhibition  of 
herself,  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  as  a  specimen  of  fickleness  and  un 
reliability.  Having  published  far  and  wide  that  we  were  going  to 
have  a  thorough  geological  survey,  and  having  been  liberally  patted 
on  the  back  for  our  energy  and  far-sightedness,  I  can  conceive  of 


23 

nothing  more  humiliating  than  backing  down,  without  reason,  when 
the  work  is  already  more  than  half  completed,  and  the  most  practi 
cally  valuable  portion  of  the  results  is  just  beginning  to  see  the  light. 

I  am  aware  that  there  are  some  who  would  pull  the  survey  up 
by  the  roots  in  order  that  the  University  may  be  planted  in  the 
same  hole,  with  the  idea  that  there  would  be  economy  in  that  oper 
ation,  or  else  with  some  hidden  notion  that  does  not  appear  on  the 
surface.  There  might  have  been  some  reason  in  this  plan  of  making 
the  Survey  by  the  University,  or  a  University  out  of  the  Survey,  for 
the  two  things  amount  to  about  the  same,  had  it  been  put  in  oper 
ation  at  the  commencement  of  our  work.  Indeed,  something  like 
this  was  suggested  by  the  State  Geologist,  three  years  ago,  in  an 
official  report.  It  is  now  too  late  :  as  organized,  the  Survey  requires 
the  entire  thoughts  and  time  of  every  man  connected  with  it,  and 
there  has  never  been  a  new  College  or  University  established  in  the 
country  where  the  Professors  had  not  their  hands  full  in  attending  to 
their  legitimate  official  duties,  and  few  is  the  number  of  them  who 
are  fitted  by  education  or  practice  to  engage  in  a  work  such  as  we 
are  carrying  on,  without  special  preliminary  training.  To  stop  the 
Survey  in  order  to  encourage  the  University  would  be  like  pulling 
the  foundation  of  a  building  to  pieces  in  order  to  get  material  for 
the  walls  and  roof. 

By  what  I  have  said  here  to-night,  I  am  aware  that  I  have  laid  my 
self  open  to  the  charge  of  blowing  my  own  trumpet ;  but  in  what  I 
have  said  I  am  very  sure  that  I  have  not  exceeded  the  truth,  and 
that  I  have  not  given  an  opinion  not  backed  by  many  years  of  ex 
perience.  I  cannot  refrain  from  adding,  however,- that  I  have  carried 
on  this  Survey  in  spite  of  many  obstacles  and  great  temptations  to 
engage  in  other  less  laborious  and  responsible,  but  more  lucrative, 
work.  Enough  has  been  accomplished  to  show  to  the  world  what  it 
would  be  were  my  plans  to  be  carried  out,  and  thus  to  take  from  my 
shoulders  the  responsibility  of  the  failure  if  the  Legislature  chooses 
to  bring  the  work  to  an  end.  If  the  Survey  can  be  continued  on  the 
same  basis  on  which  it  has  thus  far  been  prosecuted,  free  from  all  politi 
cal  contaminations,  and  with  the  same  ideal  of  thoroughness,  and  with 
a  sufficient  liberal  appropriation  to  insure  a  rapid  carrying  on  of  the 
work,  I  shall  rejoice  to  go  on  with  it  and  complete  it,  as  I  fully  be 
lieve  that  it  will  reflect  the  highest  credit  on  the  State,  and  all  offi 
cially  connected  with  it,  as  well  as  the  Legislatures  by  which  it  has 
been  upheld.  Let  the  work  stop,  without  any  fault  or  laches  of  mine, 
and  I  shall  feel  that  it  is  not  of  me  that  it  can  be  said  that,  "  having 
put  his  hand  to  the  plow,  he  looked  back." 


RELATIVE    TO    THE    PROGRESS    OF    THE 


STATE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY, 


THE    YEARS    1864-65. 


LETTER. 


SAN  FRANCISCO,  January  1,  1866. 

To  His  Excellency,  F.  F.  Low, 

Governor  of  California : 

SIR  : — The  Legislature,  during  the  session  of  eighteen  hundred  and 
sixty-three  and  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-four,  re-established  the  office 
of  State  Geologist,  then  about  to  expire  by  constitutional  limitation,  by 
passing  the  following  Act : 

"AN  ACT 

TO    CREATE    THE   OFFICE    OF    STATE    GEOLOGIST,    AND    TO    DEFINE   THE  DUTIES 

THEREOF. 

11  The  People  of  the  State  of  California,  represented  in  Senate  and  Assem 
bly,  do  enact  as  follows : 

11  SECTION  1.  J.  D.  Whitney  is  hereby  appointed  State  Geologist.  He 
shall  be  commissioned  by  the  Governor,  and  it  shall  be  his  duty,  with 
the  aid  of  such  assistants  as  he  may  appoint,  to  complete  the  geological 
survey  of  the  State,  and  prepare  a  report  of  said  survey  for  publication, 
and  superintend  the  publication  of  the  same.  Such  report  shall  be  in 
the  form  of  a  geological,  botanical,  and  zoological  history  of  the  State; 
and  the  number  of  copies  of  each  volume  to  be  printed,  and  the  style, 
form,  maps,  diagrams,  or  illustrations  to  be  contained  therein,  or  to  be 
printed  separately,  shall  be  determined  by  the  State  Geologist;  and  said 
report,  when  published,  shall  be  sold  upon  such  terms  as  the  Governor 
and  Secretary  of  State  may  decide  upon,  and  the  proceeds  of  such  sales 
shall  be  paid  into  the  Common  School  Fund  of  the  State. 

u  SEC.  2.  It  is  hereby  made  the  duty  of  the  State  Geologist  and  his 
assistants  to  devote  the  time  not  necessarily  required  in  the  preparation 
and  superintendence  for  publication  of  the  reports  provided  for  in  sec 
tion  one  of  this  Act,  to  a  thorough  and  scientific  examination  of  the 
gold,  silver,  and  copper  producing  districts  of  this  State,  and  to  such 
scientific  and  practical  experiments  as  will  be  of  value  in-  the  discovery 
of  mines  and  the  working  and  reduction  of  ores. 


"  SEC.  3.  The  following  sums  of  money  are  hereby  appropriated,  out 
of  any  money  in  the  State  Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated,  for 
the  prosecution  of  the  geological  survey  of  the  State,  and  for  the  six 
teenth  and  seventeenth  fiscal  years  :  For  salary  of  the  State  Geologist, 
nine  thousand  dollars,  to  be  drawn  monthly  on  the  last  day  of  each  month  ; 
for  salary  of  two  assistants,  six  thousand  six  hundred  dollars,  to  be  drawn 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  salary  of  the  State  Geologist;  for  publication 
of  two  volumes  of  report,  six  thousand  dollars;  for  office  rent,  and 
expenses  of  survey  in  mining  districts,  and  experiments  on  ores,  and  all 
incidental  expenses  of  work,  ten  thousand  dollars,  to  be  drawn  one  half 
each  fiscal  year. 

"  SEC.  4.     This  Act  shall  take  effect  immediately." 

The  above  Act  was  approved  by  the  Governor,  April  fourth,  eighteen 
hundred  and  sixty-four. 

Previous  to  the  passage  of  this  Act  the  following  sums  had  been 
appropriated  for  the  continuance  of  the  survey : 


At  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  original  Act. 

By  the  Legislature  of  1860-61 

By  the  Legislature  of  1861-62 

By  the  Legislature  of  1862-63 


Making  in  all 


$20,000 
15,000 
15,000 
20,000 


$70,000 


Besides  this,  three  thousand  dollars  was  appropriated  by  the  Legisla 
ture  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-one  and  sixty-two  for  printing  one 
volume  of  the  report. 

At  the  time  the  Legislature  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-three  and 
sixty-four  met  the  new  Constitution  of  the  State  was  in  operation,  and 
the  sessions  being  now  biennial,  instead  of  annual,  it  was  necessary  to 
provide  funds  for  continuing  the  survey  for  two  years.  Unfortunately 
the  State  was  at  this  time  in  great  trouble,  the  drought  of  the  two  pre 
vious  winters  having  most  seriously  affected  both  the  agricultural  and 
mining  interests,  and  given  rise  to  a  widespread  feeling  of  alarm.  It 
was  therefore  with  difficulty  that  any  appropriation  could  be  secured  for 
the  survey,  and  that  which  was  obtained  was  far  from  being  adequate  to 
the  carrying  on  of  the  work  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  its  impor 
tance.  Indeed,  it  was  but  just  enough  to  keep  the  survey  alive,  in 
addition  to  continuing  the  preparation  of  the  materials  already  in  hand 
•for  publication.  The  appropriations  for  the  survey  in  the  Act  cited 
above,  added  to  those  of  previous  Legislatures,  make  the  total  amount 
provided  for  the  fieldwork  and  salaries  in  all  departments,  from  the  com 
mencement  of  the  survey  up  to  June  thirtieth,  eighteen  hundred  arid  aixty- 
six,  ninety-five  thousand  six  hundred  dollars,  or  a  little  less  than  sixteen 
thousand  dollars  a  year  on  the  average.  Besides  this,  however,  there 
has  been  nine  thousand  dollars  appropriated  for  publication,  which  should 
not  be  charged  to  the  survey,  as  this  amount  will  be  refunded  to  the 
State  by  the  sale  of  the  volumes  published,  it  being  provided  in  both 
Acts  that  our  publications  shall  be  sold  and  the  money  paid  into  the 
Common  School  Fund. 

The  course  and  progress  of  the  geological  and  topographical  fieldwork 


of  the  survey,  up  to  the  end  of  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty- 
three,  has  already  been  made  known  in  the  letters  addressed  to  the 
Governor  from  year  to  year.  A  resume  of  the  movements  of  the  various 
parties  will  also  be  found  in  the  preface  of  the  first  volume  of  the  geology 
of  the  report. 

In  the  summer  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-four,  a  small  party  was 
fitted  out  to  commence  the  exploration  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  it  being 
my  intentibn  to  work  up  the  geology  and  topography  of  that  great 
chain,  from  the  south  towards  the  north,  as  accurately  as  our  time 
and  means  would  allow.  This  party  consisted  of  Messrs.  Brewer  and 
Hoffman,  accompanied  by  Messrs.  King  and  Gardner,  volunteer  assist 
ants  in  the  geological  and  topographical  departments.  They  took  the  field 
in  May,  and  proceeded  across  the  plains  of  the  San  Joaquiri  to  Yisalia, 
from  which  point  they  entered  the  Sierra,  ascending  King's  River  to 
its  source,  and  exploring  the  whole  region  about  the  headwaters  of  that 
and  Kern  River.  Thence  they  made  their  way  across  the  range  by  a 
pass  over  twelve  thousand  feet  high,  passed  up  Owen's  Yalley,  ascended 
the  west  branch  of  Owen's  River,  crossing  the  Sierra  again  at  an  alti 
tude  of  twelve  thousand  four  hundred  feet,  and  thence  descending  to  the 
head  of  the  San  Joaquin  River.  The  exploration  was  continued  through 
the  region  of  the  headwaters  of  that  stream  and  the  Merced,  connecting 
the  reconnoisance  with  that  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-three  around 
the  sources  of  the  Tuolumne.  The  whole  expedition  occupied  about 
three  months,  during  which  time  the  geography  and  geology  of  a  dis 
trict  including  an  area  of  over  ten  thousand  square  miles  were  for  the 
first  time  explored,  the  whole  region  having  previously  been  entirely 
unknown.  The  results  prove  to  be  of  the  greatest  interest,  disclosing 
the  fact  that  this  was  the  highest  part  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  that  it 
embraced  the  loftiest  mountains  and  the  grandest  scenery  yet  discov 
ered  within  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  For  the  details  of  this 
reconnoisance  reference  may  be  made  to  Chapter  X  of  Volume  I  of  the 
Geology,  which  has  just  been,  published  by  the  survey. 

At  the  close  of  this  campaign  Professor  Brewer  relinquished  his  posi 
tion  on  the  survey,  and  left  California  to  enter  on  his  duties  as  Professor 
in  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School  of  Yale  College.  He  still  remains,  how 
ever,  charged  with  the  direction  of  the  botanical  department  of  the 
survey,  as  will  be  noticed  further  on,  under  the  head  of  botany. 

Messrs.  King  and  Gardner  continued  their  explorations  northward  of 
the  field  of  their  labor  during  the  summer,  by  making  a  survey  and 
map  of  the  Yosemite  Yalley,  under  authority  of  the  Commissioners 
appointed  to  take  charge  of  the  tracts  embracing  that  valley  and  the 
Big  Tree  Grove  of  Mariposa  County,  recently  conveyed  to  the  State  of 
California  by  the  United  States. 

In  the  spring  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty -four.  Mr.  King  had  com 
menced  the  detailed  exploration  of  the  principal  metalliferous  belt  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada,  by  examining  the  geology  of  the  Mariposa  estate 
and  its  vicinity.  This  work  was  continued  by  Mr.  Remond  in  the 
summer  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-five,  and  carried  from  the  Mer 
ced  to  the  Stanislaus  River,  a  careful  geological  and  geographical  map  of 
that  region  having  been  furnished  by  him  as  the  result  of  his  labors.  In 
addition  to  this  he  visited  and  examined  seventy-seven  gold  mines, 
besides  many  other  localities  of  other  metals,  and  sixty-six  quartz  mills, 
of  which  twenty-three  were  in  operation.  This  work,  which  is  the  con 
tinuation  of  that  done  in  the  Sierra  during  the  previous  year,  forms  the 
first  contribution  to  our  detailed  exploration  of  the  mining  districts  of 


6 

California ;  this  exploration  we  expect  to  continue  as  soon  as  it  is  in  our 
power  to  take  the  field  again  in  the  Sierra. 

In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Gabb  has  left  for  the  southern  part  of  the  State, 
to  make  a  thorough  examination  of  portions  of  the  Coast  Eanges,  where 
the  occurrence  of  bituminous  matter  in  large  quantity  has,  especially 
during  the  last  twelve  months,  been  exciting  much  attention. 

The  above  is  all  the  geological  fieldwork  which  it  has  been  in  our 
power  to  undertake,  with  the  extremely  limited  appropriation  made  by 
the  last  Legislature,  a  portion  of  which  had  necessarily  to  be  used  in  the 
preparation  of  the  "Geological,  Botanical,  and  Zoological  History  of  the 
State/'  provided  for  in  the  Act  under  which  we  are  now  at  work.  What 
progress  has  been  made  in  the  preparation  of  our  results  for  publication, 
in  conformity  with  the  Act,  will  now  be  stated  under  the  appropriate 
heads. 

I. — TOPOGRAPHY. 

In  addition  to  the  maps  previously  described  as  forming  a  portion  of 
the  results  of  our  topographical  work,  we  have  commenced  a  new  one, 
which  embraces  the  most  valuable  and  important  part  of  the  State,  and 
covers  the  area  on  which,  as  near  as  can  be  ascertained,  somewhat  over 
nine  tenths  of  the  population  are  now  residing.  This  map  extends  from 
the  parallel  of  thirty-six  degrees  and  thirty  minutes  to  that  of  forty 
degrees  and  thirty  minutes,  and  from  the  one  hundred  and  eighteenth 
to  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-third  meridian,  thus  including  the  whole 
Sierra  from  Owen's  Lake  north,  to  Lassen's  Peak,  the  Coast  Ranges  from 
Point  Sur  and  New  Idria  on  the  south,  to  Clear  Lake  on  the  north.  It 
also  includes  the  western  portion  of  Nevada.  The  scale  of  this  map  is 
six  miles  to  the  inch,  and  its  size  four  and  a  half  feet  square,  so  that  i't 
can  be  engraved  to  four  sheets.  On  this  all  the  topographical  work  of 
the  survey  has  been  compiled,  together  with  such  materials  of  an  authen 
tic  character  as  could  be  obtained  from  other  sources,  especially  from  the 
offices  of  the  United  States  Surveyor-General,  and  the  United  States 
Coast  Survey.  The  work  of  Mr.  Wackenrcudcr  in  the  high  Sierra, 
which  was  continued  for  a  short  time  during  the  summer  of  eighteen 
hundred  and  sixty-four,  forms  an  important  portion  of  the  new  material 
incorporated  in  our  map  of  Central  California.  The  drawing  of  this 
map  is  considerably  advanced,  and  has  been  executed  by  Mr.  Hoffman, 
the  topographer  of  the  survey,  in  the  most  creditable  manner;  if  ever 
completed,  it  will  not  only  form  a  highly  important  contribution  to  the 
geography  of  the  State,  but  will  be  of  great  practical  value.  A  consid 
erable  amount  of  fieldwork,  however,  remains  to  be  done  in  the  region 
which  it  covers.  The  extreme  northwestern  portion,  including  the  region 
north  of  Clear  Lake,  has  never  been  even  approximately  mapped,  and 
portions  of  the  Sierra,  especially  the  region  between  the  Mono  and  the 
Silver  Mountain  Passes,  and  that  north  of  the  Henness  Pass,  have  never 
been  instru mentally  surveyed. 

The  "map  of  the  region  adjacent  to  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,"  and 
that  of  the  vicinity  of  Mont  Diablo,  are  ready  to  be  placed  in  the  engrav 
er's  hands,  and  the  last  named  one  will  be  photolithographed  as  soon  as 
an  establishment  for  doing  this  kind  of  work  by  the  "  Osborne  process" 
is  set  in  operation  in  this  country,  Mr.  Osborne  being  at  present  in  Boston 
for  this  purpose.  Some  difficulty  has  been  met  with  in  finding  an  artist 
who  could  be  trusted  to  do  justice  to  the  bay  map;  but  the  close  of  the 
war  and  the  contraction  of  the  currency  will,  it  is  to  be  presumed, 
relieve  our  engravers  on  copper  and  steel  from  a  large  portion  of  the 


calls  which  have  for  the  last  four  years  been  made  upon  them,  and  it  is 
probable  that  this  map.  will  be  put  in  hand  immediately. 

The  preparation  of  a  map  of  the  whole  State,  on  a  scale  of  six  miles  to 
the  inch,  was  formerly  contemplated ;  but  of  later  years  we  have  con 
sidered  that  this  was  an  undertaking  of  too  extensive  a  character  to 
meet  with  encouragement  from  the  Legislature.  Should  the  survey  be 
continued  for  three  or  four  years  longer,  we  should  be  able  to  furnish  a 
general  map  of  California  on  a  scale  of  ten  or  twelve  miles  to  the  inch, 
which  would  far  surpass  in  value  and  accuracy  anything  now  existing. 
Still,  many  years  must  elapse  before  correct  maps  of  the  almost  unknown 
southeastern  and  northwestern  corners  of  the  State  will  be  had.  It  is 
certain  that  the  United  States  Land  Office  surveys  of  the  southern  part 
of  the  State  do  not  give  any  idea  of  its  topography,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
understand  how  the  town  and  section  lines  can  have  been  run  there,  and 
so  little  idea  of  the  topography  obtained;  while  the  extremely  rough 
and  mountainous  character  of  Del  Norte,  Humboldt,  and  Trinity  Coun 
ties,  now  to  a  large  extent  in  possession  of  hostile  and  warlike  Indians, 
will  render  it  difficult  to  execute  any  detailed  geological  or  geographical 
work  in  that  region,  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

II. — PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY. 

Our  materials  in  this  department  are  constantly  accumulating;  but 
we  have  not  yet  began  to  arrange  them  for  publication.  The  baro 
metrical  measurements  of  mountains  have  been  continued,  and  instru 
ments  have  been  carried  to  greater  heights  than  ever  before  were 
attained  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  We  await  with  much 
interest  the  elaborate  report  of  Colonel  R.  S.  Williamson,  of  the  United 
States  Engineers,  to  the  Topographical  Bureau,  on  the  subject  of  the 
laws  governing  the  fluctuations  of  the  barometer  on  the  Pacific  coast. 
This  work  will  be  of  great  importance  to  science,  and  of  especial  value 
to  us,  as  enabling  us  to  *use  our  own  observations  more  intelligently  than 
would  be  possible  unless  we  had  the  means  of  carrying  on  a  series  of 
investigations  similar  to  those  of  Colonel  Williamson,  and  on  which  a 
large  amount  of  time  and  labor  would  have  to  be  expended.  The 
subject  of  the  distribution  of  the  forest  vegetation  of  the  State  will 
occupy  a  chapter  in  our  volume  of  Physical  Geography,  and  it  is  hoped 
that  we  shall  be  able  to  illustrate  it  with  a  map  showing  the  range  of 
the  different  groups  of  species. 

III. — GENERAL    GEOLOGY   AND   PALAEONTOLOGY. 

The  volume  just  issued,  which  is  entitled  "Geology — Volume  I;  a 
report  of  progress  and  synopsis  of  the  fieldwork  from  1860  to  1864," 
will  be  a  sufficient  exhibit  of  our  progress  in  the  investigation  of  the 
geological  structure  of  the  State. 

It  is  to  this  department  of.  general  geology  that  up  to  the  present 
time  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  our  attention  has  been  given,  since 
the  first  thing  required  in  a  geological  survey  is  a  knowledge  of  the 
general  geological  structure  of  the  State,  the  age  of  the  various  forma 
tions  which  occur  in  it,  and  their  range  and  extent,  or  the  position  which 
they  occupy  on  the  surface,  and  their  relations  to  each  other.  Each 
group  of  strata,  thus  determined  by  its  lithological  peculiarities,  and  by 
the  fossils  which  it  contains,  is  then  to  be  laid  down  upon  the  map  in 
the  position  which  its  outcrop  occupies  on  the  surface.  The  general 


character  of  the  minerals  and  ores  which  occur  in  each  formation  or 
group  of  strata  having  been  first  determined,  the  details  of  their  mode 
of  occurrence,  their  relative  abundance,  and  the  facilities  which  may 
exist  in  each  separate  district  for  making  them  economically  available, 
must,  after  the  preliminary  general  work  has  been  done,  be  the  object 
of  more  special  and  detailed  examinations.  It  is  not,  however,  the  busi 
ness  of  a  geological  surveying  corps  to  act  to  any  considerable  extent 
as  a  prospecting  party;  to  do  this  would  require  that  we  should  confine 
our  operations  to  a  very  limited  area.  The  labor  of  the  whole  corps  for 
an  entire  season  would  not  suffice  to  throughly  prospect  mare  than  a 
few  hundred  square  miles  in  a  very  rich  mineral  region,  and  we  should 
often  have  to  engage  in  expensive  mining  operations  to  decide  what 
was  really  of  permanent'  value.  It  is  our  task,  rather,  to  limit  the  field 
of  research,  and  to  show  to  others  where  their  labor  will  be  best 
bestowed,  preventing  foolish  expenditure  of  time  and  money  in  searching 
for  what  our  general  geological  investigations  have  determir.ed  not  to 
exist  in  sufficient  quantity  in  certain  formations  to  be  worth  working. 
Especially  in  the  first  years  of  our  work  in  a  State  of  such  immense 
area  as  California,  our  labors  must  have  more  the  character  of  a  geo 
logical  reconnoissance  than  of  a  detailed  survey. 

In  the  department  of  palaeontology  one  volume  has  already  been  pub 
lished.  This  contains,  in  the  first  section,  a  description  of  the  carbonif 
erous  fossils  of  Bass'  Banch,  the  only  locality  where  any  well  preserved 
organic  remains  of  that  age  have  been  found  within  the  State.  The 
second  section  is  devoted  to  the  fossils  of  the  triassic  rocks,  including 
all  which  have  thus  far  been  discovered  in  California  and  on  its  borders. 
While  we  have  abundant  evidence  that  a  formation  equivalent  in  geolo 
gical  age  to  the  Alpine  trias,  or  the  beds  of  Hallstadt  and  St.  Cassian, 
occurs  over  a  vast  area,  and  forms  an  important  part  of  the  metalliferous 
belt  of  the  Pacific  coast,  and  probably  on  both  sides  of  the  Sierra,  and 
while  fossils  of  this  age  have  been  found  at  several  localities  within  the 
borders  of  California,  our  most  ample  supply  of  well  preserved  specimens 
has  come  from  the  Humboldt  mining  district  in  Nevada.  Hence  we  have 
included  in  our  descriptions  of  the  triassic  fossils  those  of  that  region, 
although  some  among  them  have  not  yet  been  found  in  California. 

The  third  section  of  the  volume  of  palaeontology  is  devoted  to  the 
Jurassic  fossils  of  the  Sierra  Nevada;  or,  rather,  to  such  as  had  been  dis 
covered  at  the  time  of  its  publication.  These  fossils  are  all  from  the 
localities  near  Genessee  Yalley,  noticed  in  section  eleven,  Chapter  IX  of 
Yolume  I,  of  the  Geology.  At  the  end  of  that  volume  a  few  pages 
will  be  found  containing  descriptions  of  the  Jurassic  fossils  of  the  aurif 
erous  slates  in  Mariposa  County,  from  the  localities  discovered  by  Mr. 
King,  and  in  close  proximity  to  one  of  the  great  quartz  veins  of  the 
mining  region  proper.  This  paper,  by  Mr.  Meek,  and  which  is  illus 
trated  by  a  steel  plate,  was  published  in  the  geological  volume  to  pre 
vent  delay,  as  the  question  of  the  geological  age  of  the  auriferous  slates 
is  one  of  great  interest,  and  some  time  will  necessarily  elapse  before  the 
second  volume  of  the  palaeontology  will  be  ready  for  publication.  In 
the  meantime,  and  during  the  past  year,  Mr.  Eemond  has  traced  the 
belt  of  fossiliferous  Jurassic  rocks  from  the  Merced  River  to  the  Stanis 
laus,  finding  several  genera  and  species  different  from  those  previously 
obtained  from  this  formation.  These,  together  with  such  other  fossils  of 
this  age  as  may  hereafter  be  discovered  in  the  State,  will  be  described 

d  published  in  the  second  volume  of  the  palaeontology. 

The  fourth  section  of  the  volume  in  question  is  devoted  to  the  creta- 


9 

ceous  fossils,  and  forms  considerably  the  larger  portion  of  it,  as  the  rocks 
of  this  age  occupy  a  very  extensive  area  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  are 
rich  in  fossils  at  many  localities.  A  reference  to  the  section  in  question 
will  show  how  large  an  amount  of  material,  new  to  science,  has  been 
derived  from  the  rocks  of  the  cretaceous  series,  of  the  existence  of  which 
on  this  coast  previous  to  the  commencement  of  our  work  but  little  was 
definitely  known. 

The  first  and  third  sections  of  the  palseontological  volume  were  pre 
pared  by  Mr.  Meek ;  the  second  and  fourth  by  Mr.  Gabb.  The  plates 
are  thirty-two  in  number,  partly  engraved  on  steel,  and  partly  on  stone, 
from  drawings  furnished  by  the  authors  of  the  text.  The  volume  is 
printed  and  bound  in  a  very  superior  manner,  and  Js  sold  at  three  dollars 
and  fifty  cents  per  volume,  (in  cloth,)  as  determined  by  yourself  and  the 
Secretary  of  State,  which  is  about  the  cost  of  the  mechanical  execution 
of  the  edition.  The  text  is  stereotyped,  and  one  thousand  copies  have 
been  printed,  and  bound  in  various  styles.  A  statement  of  the  number 
of  copies  of  each  volume  of  the  publications  of  the  survey  which  have 
been  sold,  and  of  the  number  remaining  on  hand,  will  be  furnished  to 
the  Treasurer  of  State  at  the  close  of  each  fiscal  year;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  the  money  received  from  the  sales  will  be  paid  over  to  that  officer, 
unless  otherwise  directed  by  the  Legislature,  to  be  placed  by  him  in  the 
Common  School  Fund  of  the  State.  The  stereotype  plates  of  the  volume 
remain  for  the  present  in  charge  of  the  printer. 

The  first  part  of  Section  1,  Volume  II,  of  the  Palaeontology,  is  in 
the  hands  of  the  printer.  It  contains  the  first  portion  of  the  descriptions 
of  the  tertiary  invertebrate  fossils,  by  Mr.  Gabb,  and  will  soon  be  in 
circulation.  The  plates  to  accompany  this  article,  thirteen  in  number, 
are  drawn,  and  will  soon  be  pat  in  hand.  A  considerable  amount  of  new 
material  from  rocks  of  the  cretaceous  age  is  also  on  hand  and  partly 
prepared  for  the  printer  and  engraver.  The  vertebrate  fossils  collected 
by  the  survey  have  been  referred  to  Doctor  J.  Leidy  for  description. 
They  will  be  worked  up  by  him  for  the  second  volume  of  the  Pala3on- 
tology,  and  in  the  meantime  a  preliminary  notice  of  them  has  been 
received,  containing  descriptions  of  several  new  species  of  the  fossil 
horse,  rhinoceros,  and  other  large  animals,  and  a  catalogue  of  the  whole 
collection,  which  comprises  remains  of  the  mastodon,  elephant,  tapir, 
bison,  a  reptile  allied  to  the  ichthyosaurus,  crocodile,  and  other  animals 
of  great  interest.  The  fossil  plants  of  the  survey  will  be  Corked  up  by 
Doctor  Newbe'rry,  to  whom  portions  of  our  materials  in  this  department 
have  already  been  referred.  The  diatoms  and  other  microscopic  forms 
have  been  submitted  to  Mr.  A.  M.  Edwards,  of  New  York.  The  fauna 
and  flora  of  the  tertiary  rock,  with  the  additional  matter  belonging  to 
the  lower  formations,  which  has  been  and  will  be  obtained  before  the 
close  of  our  work,  will  furnish  ample  material  for  a  second  volume  in 
the  palaeontological  department. 

IV. — ECONOMICAL   GEOLOGY,    MINING,   AND    METALLURGY. 

In  the  geological  volume  just  published,  a  considerable  amount  of 
information  will  be  found  in  regard  to  the  economical  geology  of  the 
State ;  but  all  the  detailed  descriptions  of  mining  regions  and  mining 
processes  have  been  reserved  for  the  volume  or  volumes  specially 
devoted  to  these  subjects.  We  have  now  arrived  at  a  stage  of  the 


10 

survey  when,  the  preliminary  reeonnoisance  of  the  State  being  well 
advanced,  we  can  take  up  the  mining  districts,  work  up  the  details  of 
their  geology,  and  investigate  the  quantity,  quality,  and  mode  of  occur 
rence  of  their  ores.  We  need,  however,  a  laboratory,  where  the  neces 
sary  chemical  work  of  this  and  other  branches  of  the  survey  can  be 
done,  under  my  immediate  personal  supervision. 

Mr.  Ashburner's  investigations  of  the  quartz  mines  and  mills  of  the 
State  were  the  commencement  of  work  in  this  department,  and,  as  far 
as  they  go,  they  form  an  important  contribution  to  an  understanding  of 
the  mining  interests  of  California.  The  tabular  statement,  prepared  by 
him  to  exhibit  the  principal  facts  connected  with  the  auriferous  quartz 
mills  running  in  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-one,  will  always  be  valuable 
for  reference.  It  has  been  printed  in  the  appendix  to  the  volume  of 
geology,  for  convenient  reference. 

The  work  of  investigating  in  detail  the  geology  of  the  mining  regions 
of  the  State  has  been  began,  but  will  require  a  long  time  for  its  comple 
tion,  so  vast  is  the  field  and  so  important  are  the  interests  with  which 
this  branch  of  our  work  is  connected.  We  can  do  much  for  the  benefit 
of  the  people  in  this  department  if  properly  supported  by  the  Legisla 
ture;  but  hasty  and  superficial  work  will  be  of  little  use.  Too  large  a 
portion  of  the  resources  of  California  has  already  been  thrown  away  in 
foolish  mining  enterprises,  and  although  the  career  of  reckless  specula 
tion  may  seem  to  be  checked  at  present,  yet  the  same  scenes  of  wild 
excitement  will  be  repeated  again  and  again  unless  reliable  information 
becomes  widely  disseminated  among  the  people.  It  is  fully  time  that  a 
stop  should  be  put  to  a  course  which  has  already  materially  retarded  the 
progress  of  the  State,  and  which,  if  persisted  in, 'will  bring  utter  financial 
ruin  upon  us. 

V. — BOTANY. 

The  botanical  department  of  the  survey  has  been  and  still  continues 
under  the  charge  of  Professor  Brewer.  From  his  investigations  it  ap 
pears  that  about  one  thousand  six  hundred  species  of  flowering  plants, 
(including  the  higher  orders  of  the  flowerless,)  and  over  one  hundred 
species  of  mosses,  have  been  found  growing  naturally  within  the  limits 
of  the  State  or  on  its  immediate  borders.  In  the  orders  below  the 
mosses  in  the  scale  of  organization  the  data  are  still  too  imperfect  to 
allow  a  proba/ble  estimate  to  be  made  of  the  number  of  species. 

The  collection  made  by  the  survey  contain  about  seventy-four  per 
cent  of  all  the  species  known  to  exist  in  this  State,  and  about  five  per 
cent  of  them  are  new  to  science,  and  eleven  per  cent  new  to  the  State — 
that  is,  not  before  found  within  its  borders. 

Professor  Brewer  is  now  engaged  in  preparing  a  report  which  will  be 
in  fact  a  "Manual  of  the  Botany  of  California,"  containing  as  full 
descriptions  of  all  the  plants  of  the  State  as  can  be  given  in  one  volume. 
Of  this  the  general  plan  and  arrangement  will  be  similar  to  those  of  the 
"  Colonial  Floras,"  issued  under  the  auspices  of  the  British  Government. 
Full  reference  and  synonyms  will  be  given  of  all  the  species  peculiar  to 
the  Pacific  States,  and  which  occur  in  California;  and  a  chapter  will  be 
added  on  the  general  distribution  of  the  plants  of  the  State  and  their 
economical  value.  This  volume  will  form  a  suitable  text  book  to  be  used 
in  the  schools  of  the  Pacific  coast  in  connection  with  "  Gray's  Lessons  in 
Botany"  or  some  other  elementary 'work  of  a  similar  character;  and  it 
may  be  added  that  this  science  cannot  be  taught  in  California  until  such 
a  manual  as  the  one  proposed  has  been  prepared,  since  the  descriptions 


11 


of  the  plants  of  the  State  are  at  present  scattered  through  hundreds  of 
volumes,  most  of  which  are  quite  inaccessible  to  any  except  the  very  few 
who  are  furnished  with  costly  and  extensive  botanical  libraries. 

In  preparing  this  volume,  a  task  in  which  considerable  progress  has 
been  made  by  Professor  Brewer,  he  will  have  the  aid  of  several  of  the 
most  eminent  botanists  of  the  country.  Professor  Gray,  of  Cambridge, 
has  kindly  offered  to  work  up  the  large  and  difficult  family  of  the  Com- 
positse;  he  has  also  determined  most  of  the  species  in  the  collection,  and 
has  given  every  facility  fur  consulting  the  collections  and  library  of  the 
"  Gray  Herbarium/'  of  Harvard  University.  Professor  Torrey,  of  New 
York,  will  describe  certain  orders  of  the  Apetalse,  of  which  he  has  made 
a  special  study.  Dr.  Englemann,  of  St.  Louis,  will  prepare  the  descrip 
tion  of  the  Cactacese,  and  render  assistance  in  several  other  orders  to 
which  he  has  particularly  devoted  himself.  Professor  Thurber,  of  New 
York,  will  describe  the  grasses,  and  Professor  Eaton,  of  New  Haven,  the 
ferns  and  higher  cryptogarnic  plants.  The  carices  collected  during  the 
first  two  years  of  the  survey  were  examined  and  determined  by  Dr. 
Booth,  of  London,  just  before  his  death.  The  herbaria  of  Professor  Tor 
rey,  so  rich  in  Pacific  coast  specimens,  and  those  of  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  and  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
have  also  been  freely  opened  to  Professor  Brewer  for  comparison  and 
consultation.  The  plants  in  the  State  collection  will  all  be  carefully 
named,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  Legislature  will  not  much  longer  delay 
having  them  placed  where  they  will  be  accessible  for  comparison  to  all 
students  of  this  science  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

It  is  believed  that  the  botanical  volume  maybe  got  ready  for  the  press 
before  the  close  of  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-seven. 

vi. — ZOOLOGY. 

The  extensive  acquaintance  of  Doctor  Cooper  with  the  fauna  of  the 
Pacific  coast,  obtained  previous  to  his  connection  with  the  Geological 
Survey,  has  enabled  him  to  prepare  a  large  amount  of  material  for  the 
press,  forming  the  basis  of  at  least  four  volumes  of  our  report.  The  fol 
lowing  table  shows  what  had  been  accomplished  in  the  way  of  zoological 
collecting  up  to  April  first,  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty -four,  in  six  of  the 
classes  : 


y 

w 

1 

to 

!| 

1 

5 

no 

I 

1 

o 

co 

g 

x 

1 

CO 

j 

P 

Number  of  species  known  to 

exist  in  California  

110 

353 

66 

18 

183 

542 

Collected  by  the  survey  

34 

237 

33 

10 

74 

507 

New  to  the  fauna  of  Califor 

nia  

13 

11 

10 

1 

20 

211 

Not  before  described 

4 

4 

13 

122 

Found  east  of  the  Mississippi 

23 

161 

i(?) 

2(0 

29 

12 

In  some  of  the  classes  a  considerably  larger  exhibit  of  species  obtained 
for  the  collection  could  have  been  made,  had  it  not  been  deemed  advisa 
ble  by  Doctor  Cooper  not  to  collect  the  more  common  and  easily  procured 
species  until  a  suitable  place  had  been  provided  for  the  museum  of  the 
survey.  The  mounting  of  specimens  of  birds  and  mammals  is  so  much 
more  satisfactorily  done  from  freshly  prepared  skins,  that  the  collecting 
of  such  species  as  can  be  readily  obtained  in  this  vicinity  may  properly 
be  deferred  until  they  can  be  set  up  at  once  in  the  place  they  are  destined 
to  occupy.  The  number  of  specimens  illustrating  the  zoology  of  the 
Pacific  coast,  now  in  the  collection  of  the  survey,  may  be  estimated  at 
between  seven  thousand  and  eight  thousand. 

Of  three  of  the  four  volumes  of  the  zoological  reports  the  illustrations 
have  been  in  hand  for  several  months,  and  it  is  hoped  that  they  will  be 
so  far  advanced  towards  completion  that  at  least  two  of  them  may  go  to 
press  during  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-six. 

Two  volumes  of  the  zoological  series  will  be  devoted  to  the  birds  and 
mammals,  and  Doctor  Cooper's  manuscript  will  be  carefully  revised  by 
Professor  Baird,  of  the  Smithsonian  institution,  who  also  has  charge, 
under  my  general  direction,  of  the  execution  of  the  illustrations.  We 
propose  to  give  a  figure  of  one  species  in  each  genus  of  the  birds;  those 
which  have  never  before  been  described  or  figured  being  illustrated  by 
large  colored  figures  on  steel  or  stone,  and  the  others  by  wood  cuts. 
The  different  species  of  each  genus  will  be  distinguished  from  each  other 
by  diagrams  of  the  head,  claws,  wings,  and  other  characteristic  parts. 
The  mammals  will  also  be  fully  illustrated,  the  object  being  to  furnish, 
in  the  zoological  series,  manuals  or  text  books  which  shall  not  only 
have  a  permanent  scientific  value,  as  containing  in  a  condensed  and  sys 
tematic  form  all  that  is  known  of  the  fauna  of  the  State  of  California 
and  its  borders,  but  which  shall  also  be  practically  useful  to  those  per 
sons  who  may  desire  to  ascertain  the  names  and  habits  of  the  animals 
they  may  meet  with  on  land  or  in  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  coast. 

The  description  of  the  fishes  will  form  a  separate  volume,  and  this 
will  be  prepared  by  Mr.  Theodore  Gill,  who  will  be  able  to  use,  not  only 
the  materials  and  notes  furnished  by  Doctor  Cooper,  but  also  the  exten 
sive  collection  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  accumulated  during  many 
years  of  labor  by  the  various  naturalists  who  have  devoted  themselves 
to  gathering  specimens  on  the  Pacific  coast  in  this  department.  Each 
species  will  be  illustrated  by  a  carefully  drawn  and  engraved  figure,  the 
work  being  done  under  Mr.  Gills'  immediate  supervision. 

The  shells  will  also  afford  the  material  for  another  volume,  Doctor 
Cooper's  collections  being  very  extensive,  and  comprising  nearly  two 
hundred  new  species.  As  the  eminent  conchologist,  Mr.  P.  P.  Car 
penter,  has  been  for  a  long  time  specially  devoted  to  the  study  of  the 
shells  of  the  Pacific  coast,  Doctor  Cooper's  collections  have  been  placed 
in  his  hands  for  study,  and  it  is  expected  that  he  will  prepare  one  of  the 
volumes  of  our  zoological  series,  in  which  each  species  will  be  illus 
trated  by  an  accurate  figure. 

The  maps  and  sections,  with  perhaps  some  of  the  more  important 
illustrations  of  the  scenery  of  the  State,  should  be  placed  together  in 
one  volume  or  atlas,  and  this  will  form  the  proper  conclusion  of  our 
series  of  publications. 

According  to  our  plans  for  publication,  as  developed  in  the  preceding 
pages,  it  will  be  seen  that  we  contemplate  issuing  from  eleven  to  thirteen 
volumes,  which  are  distributed  among  the  different  departments  of  the 
survey  as  follows : 


13 


P  h  y  sical  Geography  

1 

General  Geology  .                            

2 

Palaeontology  

2 

Economical  Geology,  Mining,  and  Metallurgy  

1 

or     2 

Botany  

1 

Zoology  ..  .  . 

8 

or    4 

Maps,  sections,  etc  

1 

Total  

11 

to  13 

Of  these,  two  are  alreacty  issued,  and  eight  more  are  in  a  forward 
state  of  preparation,  the  illustrations  of  three  of  them  being  nearly  all 
drawn,  and  a  portion  of  them  already  engraved.  The  amount  of  time 
required  to  complete  the  series  of  thirteen  volumes  will,  of  course, 
depend  upon  the  vigor  with  which  the  work  is  pushed,  and  that,  again, 
on  the  amount  appropriated  by  the  Legislature.  With  a  sufficiently 
liberal  appropriation,  it  is  probable  that  the  fieldwork  may  be  finished 
before  the  time  expires  when  the  office  'of  State  Geologist  will  by  con 
stitutional  limitation  cease  to  exist — April  the  fourth,  eighteen  hundred 
and  sixty-eight.  The  completion  of  the  printing  and  engraving  will  of 
course  require  a  longer  time;  but  it  will  perhaps  be  reasonable  to  esti 
mate  that  within  four  years,  from  the  present  time  the  full  series  of 
volumes  may  be  in  the  hands  of  the  public. 

No  provision  has  yet  been  made  by  the  Legislature  for  the  arrange 
ment  and  exhibition  of  the  collections  made  by  the  survey,  as  was  con 
templated  in  the  original  Act  under  which  our  work  was  commenced. 
These  collections  are  already  very  extensive,  embracing  many  thousand 
specimens  of  rocks,  fossils,  minerals,  and  ores,  as  well  as  the  extremely 
important  suites  in  the  zoological  and  botanical  departments.  All  these 
•specimens  are  of  great  value,  as  illustrating  the  natural  history,  the 
geological  structure,  and  the  mineral  resources  of  the  State.  Such  of 
these  as  have  not  been  required  for  use  in  the  preparation  of  our  report, 
remain  packed  in  boxes  and  stored  away  at  the  office  of  the  survey. 
Unfortunately,  we  were  obliged,  for  want  of  room,  to  store  a  portion  of 
our  specimens  in  a  (so-called)  fireproof  warehouse  in  San  Francisco, 
and  these  have  already  been  destroyed  by  fire,  entailing  a  serious  loss 
on  the  survey  and  the  State.  In  view  of  this  calamity,  it  will  not  be 
necessary  for  me  to  enlarge  on  the  necessity  of  providing  a  permanent 
fireproof  building  for  our  collections,  as  has  already  been  repeatedly 
urged  by  me  in  my  annual  communications  to  the  Legislature.  The 
only  official  step  thus  far  taken  by  the  Legislature  towards  the  estab 
lishment  of  a  State  Museum,  is  the  passage  of  the  following  resolution 
b}^the  Legislature  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two  and  eighteen  hun 
dred  and  sixty-three. 

"  Resolved,  by  the  Assembly,  the  Senate  concurring,  That  Professor  J. 
D.  Whitney,  State  Geologist,  John  Swett,  State  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction,  and  J.  F.  Houghton,  Surveyor  General,  be  and  they 
are  hereby  constituted  a  Board  of  Commissioners,  to  report  to  the 
Legislature  on  or  before  the  second  Monday  of  December,  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  upon  the  feasibility  of  establishing  a 
State  University,  embracing  an  Agricultural  College,  a  '  School  of  Mines/ 


14 

and  a  Museum — including  the  geological  collection  of  this  State;  and 
that  said  Board  report  such  facts  and  considerations  as  they  may  deem 
important  in  connection  therewith." 

In  obedience  to  this  requisition  of  the  Legislature,  an  elaborate  report 
was  submitted  by  the  Board  of  Commissioners  as  above  constituted  at 
the  session  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-three  and  eighteen  hundred 
and  sixty -four.  In  this  report  the  whole  subject  of  the  organization  of 
a  State  University  was  thoroughly  discussed,  and  the  requirements  of 
the  Constitution  in  this  respect  duly  set  forth.  The  establishment  of  a 
State  Polytechnic  School,  having  for  its  object  "  the  professional  training 
of  young  men  in  the  exact  and  natural  sciences,  and  their  application  to 
arts,  manufacture,  mining,  and  agriculture/'  was  strongly  recommended 
to  the  Legislature.  It  was  also  proposed  that  the  collections  of  the 
geological  survey  should  be  placed  in  a  suitable  fireproof  building,  in 
which  should  be  ample  accommodations  for  displaying  and  showing  them, 
as  well  as  room  for  a  library,  laboratory,  and  an  office  for  the  survey, 
together  with  lecture  rooms,  and  other  conveniences  necessary  for  a 
scientific  school,  for  which  purpose  the  building  was  to  be  used  after  the 
completion  of  the  survey.  This  would  have  been  the  first  step  towards 
the  establishment  of  a  State  University,  provided  for  long  since  by  the 
Constitution,  and  for  which  funds  have  been  furnished  by  the  United 
States. 

The  interest  on  the  money  received  from  the  sales  of  the  land  given 
by  Congress  has  thus  far  been  applied  to  another  purpose;  but  it  is  evi 
dent  that  the  people,  through  the  Legislature,  are  bound  in  honor  to  see 
that  the  trust  accepted  by  the  State  and  incorporated  in  their  own  Con 
stitution  should  be  sacredly  complied  with. 

In  concluding  this  communication,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  Act 
under  which  the  survey  is  at  present  conducted  does  not  require  the 
State  Geologist  to  present  to  the  Legislature,  through  the  Governor,  or 
in  any  other  way,  any  annual  report  or  estimate  for  the  continuance  of 
the  survey,  as  was  demanded  by  the  Act  under  which  the  survey  \vas 
originally  organized.  The  State  Geologist  will,  however,  be  happy  to 
appear  before  the  "Committees  on  Mines  and  Mining  Interests  "  of  the 
Senate  and  House,  and  to  give  them  all  possible  information  in  regard 
to  the  progress  of  the  survey,  and  what  he  deems  desirable  for  continu 
ing  the  work  both  in  the  field  and  in  the  office. 

I  am,  with  high  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

J.  D.  WHITNEY, 

State  Geologist. 


LETTER  OF  THE  STATE  GEOLOGIST 


RELATIVE    TO    THE    PROGRESS    OF    THE 


STATE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY 


DURING  THE  YEARS  1866-7. 


D.  W.  GELWICKS STATE   PRINTER. 


REPORT. 


SAN  FRANCISCO,  November  25th,  1867. 
To  His  Excellency, 

FRED'K  F.  Low, 

Governor  of  California : 

SIR  : — The  geological  survey  of  this  State  has  been  carried  on  during 
the  past  two  years  under  authority  of  the  Legislature,  approved  by 
yourself  April  fourth,  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-four.  Consequently, 
the  office  of  State  Geologist  will  expire,  by  constitutional  limitation,  on 
the  fourth  day  of  April  next. 

The  geological  survey  has  now  been  going  on  just  seven  years,  as 
operations  were  commenced  about  December  first,  eighteen  hundred  and 
sixty,  the  State  Geologist  having  arrived  in  San  Francisco  JNovember 
fourteenth  of  that  year.  The  amounts  which  have  been  appropriated 
by  the  different  Legislatures  for  the  purpose  of  the  survey  are  as  follows: 


At  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  original  Act 

$20  000  00 

By  the  Legislature  of  1860-1  

15,000  00 

By  the  Legislature  of  1861-2                          

15,000  00 

By  the  Legislature  of  1862-3  

20,000  00 

By  the  Legislature  of  1863—4  (for  two  years)        .         .  . 

25  600  00 

By  the  Legislature  of  1865  6  (for  two  years)    

30  000  00 

Total  

$125,600  00 

Making  an  average  of  fifteen  thousand  nine  hundred  dollars  a  year. 
In  my  letter  to  yourself,  dated  January  first,  eighteen  hundred  and 
sixty-six,  and  published  by  order  of  the  last  Legislature,  I  gave  a  suc 
cinct  statement  of  the  condition  of  the  work  of  the  survey  at  that  time, 
and  I  will  now  proceed  to  recapitulate,  as  briefly  as  possible,  what  pro 
gress  has  been  made,  both  in  the  fieldwork  and  in  the  publication, 
department,  since  the  date  of  that  letter. 

I  will  first,  however,  allude  to  our  plan   of  operations,  as  gradually 


developed  during  the  progress  of  our  work  and  finally  brought  into 
shape  at  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  volume  devoted  to  geology. 
(See  Preface,  Geology  of  California,  Vol.  I.,  where,  also,  a  resume  of  the 
movements  of  the  various  parties  of  the  survey,  up  to  the  close  of  the 
year  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-five,  is  given.)  According  to  this  plan 
the  survey  is  divided  into  three  principal  departments,  each  of  which  is 
again  divided  into  subordinate  branches. 

The  main  divisions  with  the  subdivisions  may  by  seen  at  a  glance  in 
the  annexed  scheme : 

A. —  Topography. — 1.  Topographical  Survey  and  Maps;  2.  Physical 
Geography. 

B. —  Geology. — 1.  General  Geology;  2.  Palaeontology;  3.  Economical 
Geology;  including  Mining  and  Metallurgy. 

C. — Natural  History. — 1.    Botany;    2.    Zoology. 

To  the  above  must  be  added  the  collection  of  a  museum  of  geology 
and  natural  history,  to  illustrate  the  resources  and  geological  structure 
of  the  States  and  Territories  of  the  Pacific  Coast. 

Each  one  of  the  subdivisions  specified  above  demands  one  or  more 
volumes  of  the  published  series,  for  the  results  embraced  in  it.  The 
number  of  volumes  depends,  of  course,  on  the  thoroughness  with  which 
the  work  is  performed,  and  that  again  on  the  amount  of  money  appro 
priated. 

The  following  scheme  shows  the  lowest  and  the  highest  number  of 
volumes  contemplated  in  each  department : 


Title  of  Work. 

it 

r? 

'.    o 

•        l-»5 

W 

I? 

1* 

1  $ 

1  k 

Physical  Geography  

1 

-\ 

« 

2 

Economical  Geology  

1 

2 

Palseontoloo'v          ...        .... 

2 

8 

Botany  

1 

2 

Zoology  

8 

4 

Maps    ..    .     ..... 

1 

1 

Totals  

11 

15 

Of  the  condition  of  these  volumes,  as  regards  progress  in  preparation 
for  the  press,  information  will  be  given  further  on. 

The  original  Act  authorizing  the  survey,  provided  for  such  a  complete 
examination  of  the  State  and  report  on  all  departments  of  the  geogra 
phy,  geology,  and  natural  history,  as  is  contemplated  in  the  above 
synopsis  of  the  proposed  volumes;  and,  although  the  plan  may  to 
some  have  seemed  too  vast  in  its  scope  for  the  intelligence  and  the 
resources  of  the  State,  yet  it  is  my  firm  opinion  that  if  ever  carried  to 
completion,  its  suitableness  will  be  more  and  more  appreciated  as  the 
State  increases  in  wealth  and  civilization.  Had  the  appropriations 


asked  for  by  the  State  Geologist  been  granted,  the  work  would,  without 
having  been  any  serious  burden  on  the  people,  be  now  far  advanced 
towards  completion. 

With  the  above  brief  suggestions,  I  will  proceed  to  give,  first  a 
synopsis  of  the  movements  of  the  different  parties  which  have  been  in 
the  field  during  the  past  two  years,  and  then  a  concise  statement  of  the 
present  condition  of  our  work,  following  the  order  stated  above,  for  the 
different  departments. 

FlELDWORK    OF    1866. 

1.  Messrs.  W.  M.  Gabb  and  F.  E.  Brown  commenced  January  fourth, 
eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-six,  a  geological  exploration  of  the  southern 
coast  ranges,  with   the  especial  purpose  of  obtaining  materials  for  the 
palaeontology  of   the   tertiary  rocks   and   to   determine    the    geological 
position  and  economical  value  of  the  bituminous  materials  found  in  Los 
Angeles,  Santa  Barbara,  and   San    Luis  Obispo   Counties.      This  party 
reached  San  Luis  Obispo,  April  eighth,  and  was  joined  by  Mr.  Hoffmann, 
and  both  geological  and  topographical  work  was  carried  on  from  there 
northward,  in  the  Santa  Lucia,  Gavilan,  and  Monte  Diablo  ranges,  until 
June,  when  the  party  returned  to  San  Francisco. 

2.  After  writing  up  his  notes,  Mr.  Gabb  continued  his  work  nortbward 
of  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  assisted   by  Mr.  Frank  Coffee,  and  they 
proceeded  to  make  a  detailed  geological  examination  of  a  large  portion 
of  Sonoma,  Mendocino,  and  Humboldt  Counties,  returning  to  San  Fran 
cisco  about  the  first  of  November. 

3.  A   party,  consisting   of  Messrs.   C.    King*  J.   T.    Gardner,   H.  1ST. 
Bolander,  and   C.   R.   Brinley,  with  two  men,  left  San   Francisco,  June 
sixth,  to  commence  the  geological  and  topographical  survey  of  the  region 
adjacent  to  the  Yosemite  Valley,  so  as  to  connect  our  work  of  eighteen 
hundred  and  sixty -four,  in  the  High  Sierra,  with  that  of  Mr.  Wackenren- 
der,  commenced  in  previous  years  and  continued  in  eighteen  hundred 
and    sixty-six    and    eighteen    hundred   and    sixty-seven.      The    especial 
object  of  this  party  was  the  collection  of  material  for  a  map,  on  a  large 
scale,  for  the  Yosemite   Guide  Book,  especially  authorized  by  the  last 
Legislature.     (The  dimensions  and  scale  of  this  map  will  be  given  fur 
ther  on.)     This  party  remained  in  the  field  until  November  first,  Mr. 
King  carrying  on  the  geological  work,  and  Mr.  Gardner  the   topograph 
ical.     Both  these  gentlemen  returned  to  the  Eastern  States  in  November, 
where  Mr.  Gardner  occupied   himself  until  spring,  plotting  his  summer's 
work.     These  gentlemen  have  since  been  employed  by  the  United  States 
War  Department,  by  special  authority  of  Congress,  to  make  a  geological 
and  topographical  survey  of  the  region  bordering  on  the  Pacific  Railroad 
along  the  fortieth  parallel,  in  which  great  work  they  are  still  engaged. 

4.  Early  in  August  I  left  San  Francisco,  having  previously  been  with 
the  parties  above   mentioned  for  some  time,  to  make  a   geographical 
and  geological  survey  of  Plumas  County.     The  party  consisted,  besides 
myself,  of   Mr.   Wackenrender,  who    had  charge    of  the   topographical 
work,  assisted  during  a  part  of  the  time  by  Mr.  A.  Hartwig,  and  then 
by  Mr.  A.  W.  Keddie,  with  two   men.     The  geological  portion   of  the 
survey  I  myself  had  in  charge.     This  party  remained  in  the  field  as  long 
as  the  season  would  permit,  nearly  finishing  the  work  in  Plumas,  and  at 
the  same  time  doing  a  part  of  Sierra,  it  having  been  found  advisable  to 
combine  these  two  counties  on  one  map. 

The  above  were  the  principal  parties  in  the  field  during  the  season  of 


6 

eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-six;  but,  in  addition,  there  was  considerable 
field  and  office  work  done,  chiefly  of  a  topographical  character.  Mr. 
Wackenrender  was  in  the  field  in  May  and  June,  mapping  the  country 
between  the  Sonora  and  the  Big  Tree  roads,  across  the  Sierra  Nevada. 
Mr.  George  H.  Goddard  plotted  for  this  survey  a  large  amount  of  work 
done  in  previous  years  at  the  head  of  the  Mokelumnc,  Stanislaus,  and 
American  Eivers.  He  also  plotted  a  considerable  area  along  the  eastern 
boundary  of  the  State,  including  part  of  the  White  Mountain  range. 
Mr.  E.  D'Heureuse  commenced  the  survey  of  Kern  County,  on  his  own 
account,  which  work  he  was  unable  to  finish,  and  which  was  therefore 
ti>rned  over  to  us  on  payment  of  a  small  portion  of  its  cost,  with  the 
understanding  that  he  should  go  on  to  complete  it  during  the  next  year, 
at  the  expense  of  the  survey.  Mr.  S.  F.  Peckharn,  in  May  and  June, 
made  a  special  detailed  examination  of  all  the  important  oil-bearing 
localities,  or  those  which  were  reputed  as  such,  for  the  purpose  of  secur 
ing  a  supply  of  material  for  chemical  examination,  and  to  obtain  informa 
tion  in  regard  to  the  economical  value  of  the  bituminous  substances  of 
that  region. 

During  the  winter  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-six  and  sixty-seven, 
Mr.  Gabb  was  detached  from  the  survey,  and  accompanied  by  Mr.  F. 
Yon  Lbhr,  made  a  survey  of  the  Peninsula  of  Lower  California,  for  pri 
vate  parties.  The  scientific  geological  results  of  this  expedition,  which 
were  of  veny  considerable  value,  as  giving  the  first  clue  to  the  structure 
of  an  extensive  and  important  region,  were  communicated  to  and  will 
be  published  by  the  California  Academy  of  Sciences. 

The  chemical  examination  of  the  bituminous  products  collected  during 
the  season  was  carried  on  at  Boston  and  Providence  during  the  ensuing 
winter,  by  Mr.  Peckham,  for  the  term  of  six  months,  and  the  results 
obtained  by  him  will  be  embodied  in  the  volumes  of  economical  geoloi»y. 

The  fieldwork  of  this  year  (eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-six)  was  pro 
longed  until  late  in  the  season,  and  as  early  as  possible  the  next  year  it 
was  resumed,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  synopsis : 

FIELDWORK  OF  1867. 

1.  Mr.  Hoffman,  with    Mr.    A.   D.  Wilson   as  assistant,  commenced 
March  sixth,  to  work  up  the  region  of  the  foothills  between  the  Chow- 
chilla  and  King's  Eivers.    May  twentieth  1  joined  the  party,  and  we  con 
tinued  the   surveys  to  the   Big  Tree  grant  and  across  the  Yosemite  to 
Coulterville.  where  the  party  was  broken  up,  Mr.  Hoffman  returning  to 
San   Francisco   to  go   on   with   the  office   work.     Mr.  W7ilson  was  then 
joined  by  Mr.  Von  Lohr,  and  they  proceeded  to  make  a  survey  of   the 
Calaveras  Grove  of  Big  Trees  on  their  way  to  the  road  across  the  Sierra, 
via  Placerville. 

2.  Mr.  Gabb,  accompanied  by  Mr.  E.  E.  Poston,  about  the  middle  of 
June,  joined   Messrs.  Wilson  and   Lohr,  and   they  together  proceeded  to 
the  eastern  border  of  the  State  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  necessary 
surveys  to  complete  the  southeastern  sheet  of  the  Central  California  Map. 
Of  this  party,  a  portion  of  the  expenses  was  paid  by  the  United  States 
and  apart  by  myself.     Only  that  was  charged  to  the  State  of  California 
which  was  justly  due  for  work  done  within  its  limits.     This  party,  after 
exploring  the  White   Mountain    range,  carried  their  work  east  ;>s  far  as 
the  one  hundred  and  sixteenth    meridian,  working  up  the  geology  and 
topography  of  an  extensive  region  very  difficult  to  explore,  and  one  in 


regard   to    which  there    had   been   up    to  that  time  but  little  definite* 
information  obtained.  • 

It  was  my  intention  to  have  the  expedition  extend  its  work  as  far  as 
the  eastern  border  of  Nevada,  embracing  the  area  between  the  thirty- 
seventh  and  thirty-ninth  parallels;  but  winter  set  in  very  early,  so  that 
it  became  necessary  to  leave  the  field  during  the  latter  part  of  October. 

3.  Mr.  Hoffman,  assisted  by  Mr.  H.  Craven   as  topographer,  Mr.  W. 
Harris  as  photographer,  and  two  men,  left  San  Francisco   about   the 
middle  of  August,  and  were  occupied  for  about  six  weeks  in  completing- 
the   work   commenced   during  the  previous  year  by  Messrs.  King  and 
Gardner,  about  the  head  of  the  Merced  and  on  the  upper  portion  of  the 
Tuolumne. 

They  explored  the  interesting  valley  called  by  the  Indians  Heteh- 
Hetchy,  an  almost  exact  counterpart  in  its  general  features  and  in  some- 
of  its  details,  of  the  Yosemite  Yalley.  A  number  of  photographs  were 
taken,  of  which  the  negatives  are  in  our  possession,  to  be  used  in  illus 
trating  our  future  volumes  in  case  it  should  be  desirable.  This  party 
also  made  a  minute  survey  of  the  bottom  of  the  Yosemite  Valley  for  the 
Commissioners,  to  be  paid  for  from  the  fund  to  be  appropriated  for  their 
use.  This  work  was  found  to  be  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  the  Com 
mission  in  carrying  out  the  objects  of  the  grant  made  by  Congress  to 
the  State  of  California. 

4.  Mr.  K.  D'Heureuse  continued    his    topographical  work  in    Kern,, 
Tulare,  and  Inyo  Counties,  with  two  assistants,  commencing  May  twenty- 
eighth,  and  ending  September  nineteenth.     This  survey  has  been  plotted 
on  a  scale  of  two  miles  to  an  inch,  and  embraces  an  area  of  about  one 
hundred  miles  north  and  south,  by  fifty  in  the  opposite  direction.     It 
takes  in  all  the  settled  part  of  Kern  County,  about  half  of  Tulare,  and 
the  western  edge  of  Inyo,  embracing  the  whole  of  the  Sierra  Nevada 
from  Walker's  Pass  to  the  parallel  passing  along  the  lower  end  of  Owen's- 
Lake.      Mr.  D'Heureuse  also  collected  a  large  amount  of  geological  in 
formation  in  regard  to  the  region  traversed  by  himself.     He  discovered 
an  extensive  grove  of  the  Big  Trees,  of  the  existence  of  which  we  have 
no  previous  account. 

5.  Mr.  Wackenrendcr  has  also  been  engaged  during  the  whole  season, 
with  the  exception  of  two  weeks,  in  continuing  his  surveys  in  the  cen 
tral  portion  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.     During  this  time  he  has  made  several 
trips  along  the  Sierra,  between  Alpine  and  Plumas  Counties,  completing 
the   high  pajjt  of  Alpine,   Calaveras,  Amador,  El   Dorado,  and  Sierra 
Counties.     There  is  about  three  months  more  work  to  be  done  to  enable 
us  to  plot  the  whole  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  on  the  largest  scale  required, 
from  Walker's  Pass  to  Lassen's  Peak,  a  distance  of  about  four  hundred 
miles  in  a  direct  line.     The  area  of  the  region  thus  surveyed  by  our  par 
ties  during  the  past  four  years,  including  only  what  may  be  called  the 
"  High  Sierra,"  is  about  twenty  thousand  square  miles,  or  fifty  miles  in 
width  on  an  average,  by  four  hundred  miles  long,  as  stated  above.     The 
counties  in   which    the  work  is  deficient  are  Tuolumne,  Nevada,   and 
Placer,  but  we  could  plot  the  whole  of  the  higher  portion  of  these  with, 
tolerable  accuracy,  on  the  six  miles  to  an  inch  scale,  in  case  of  necessity. 

During  the  past  two  years  the  State  Geologist  has  been  actively  and 
exclusively  engaged  in  the  State  attending  to  the  necessary  work  of  the 
survey  in  all  its  departments,  with  the  exception  of  two  short  periods  of 
absence,  one  of  four  weeks  in  Oregon  and  Washington  Territory,  and 
one  of  two  weeks  in  Nevada.  These  excursions  were  made  for  the  pur 
pose  of  settling  important  geographical  and  geological  questions  inti- 


mately  connected  with  our  own  work.  Lest,  however,  misapprehensions 
should  arise,  I  will  slate  that  for  absences  of  this  kind  there  is  no  charge 
made  to  the  State,  either  for  salary  or  expenses  incurred. 

Having  in  the  preceding  pages  given  a  summary  of  our  movements 
during  the  past  two  years,  enumerating  the  times  and  specifying  the 
localities  where  the  principal  parties  were  at  work,  I  will  proceed  to 
state  what  progress  has  been  made  in  each  department,  necessarily  with 
much  brevity,  following  the  order  of  the  scheme  of  our  work  as  given 
above. 

1.     TOPOGRAPHY  AND  MAPS. 

By  far  the  largest  amount  of  expenditure  has  been  durjng  the  past 
two  years  in  this  department  of  the  survey.  The  reasons  for  this  were 
twofold.  First — By  the  resignation  of  Professor  Brewer,  who  left  our 
work  to  take  a  chair  in  Yale  College,  and  by  the  sickness  and  resigna 
tion  of  Mr.  Esmond,*  I  had  been  deprived  of  my  principal  geological 
assistants,  and  the  appropriation  was  too  small  to  enable  me  to  engage 
others  without  dismissing  a  part  of  the  topographical  staff.  But  the 
gentlemen  employed  in  this  department  were  engaged  on  work  already 
commenced,  and  with  which  they  alone  were  familiar;  hence  they  could 
not  be  dismissed  without  entirely  breaking  up  the  topographical  work, 
and  allowing  a  large  amount  of  valuable  material  to  be  utterly  lost. 
Second — The  want  of  any  even  approximately  correct  maps  of  any  part 
of  the  State,  made  it  entirely  impossible  for  us  to  work  out  the  detailed 
geology  without  first  preparing  such  maps  as  we  needed.  We  could 
neither  lay  down  the  placer  mines  nor  the  quartz  veins,  nor  indicate  the 
different  strata  cropping  out  on  the  surface,  or  make  our  descriptions  of 
the  geological  structure  of  the  country  intelligible  in  any  other  than  the 
most  general  way,  without  having  an  accurate  geographical  basis  for  our 
work.  Properly,  our  work  should  be  carried  on  pari  passu  in  both  the 
geographical  and  geological  departments;  but,  if  means  are  only  pro 
vided  for  one,  the  former  must  have  the  precedence,  and  be  completed 
first. 

The  general  plan  of  our  topographical  work  embraces  maps  on  four 
different  scales.  The  largest  is  that  of  a  mile  to  two  inches;  this  is 
reserved  for  the  most  iaiportant  mining  districts,  where  the  special  illus 
tration  of  the  occurrence  of  veins  or  mineral  deposits  makes  a  large 
scale  necessary.  The  next  is  two  miles  to  an  inch;  this  is  the  scale  of 
the  Bay  Map  and  of  the  County  Maps  in  progress,  as  will,  be  noticed 
further  on.  The  next  is  six  miles  to  an  inch  ;  this  scale  is  adopted  for 
the  Central  California  Map;  and  finally,  a  scale  of  ten  or  twelve  miles  to 
an  inch  will  have  to  be  adopted  for  a  general  map  of  the  State,  if  we 
ever  are  able  to  compile  one  from  our  materials.  I  did,  in  former  years, 


-Mr.  Remond  left  the  survey  early  in  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-six,  being  completely  broken 
down  in  health — constitutional  tendencies  to  disease  of  the  lungs  having  been  aggravated  and 
hastened  towards  a  fatal  termination  by  his  arduous  exertions  and  devotion  to  the  work  in  which 
he  was  engaged.  He  removed  to  Santiago,  Chile,  in  the  hope  that  the  climate  of  that  country 
might  exercise  a  beneficial  influence  on  his  health.  It  was  too  late,  however ;  the  hand  of  death 
was  on  him,  and  he  returned  to  California,  after  a  little  more  than  a  year's  absence,  living  only 
a  few  days  after  landing  in  San  Francisco.  He  died  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-nine,  May  thirty- 
first,  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-seven.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  lover  of  the  natural  sciences 
with  remarkable  perceptive  powers,  and  full  of  energy  and  perseverance.  Had  his  life  been 
spared,  he  would  have  risen  to  an  eminent  position  in  his  favorite  departments  of  geology  and 
palaeontology.  His  valuable  work  in  connection  with  our  survey,  and  especially  that  carried  on 
by  him  under  the  greatest  difficulties  in  Northern  Mexico,  will  entitle  him  to  be  ranked  among 
those  who  have  done  much  to  aid  the  cause  of  science  on  the  Pacific  coast. 


contemplate  as  large  a  scale  as  six  miles  to  an  inch  for  the  general  map 
of  the  State;  but  this  would  require  nine  sheets,  and  seems  too  extensive 
an  undertaking  for  our  means,  or  for  any  means  that  we  are  ever  likely 
to  be  supplied  with;  and  the  publication  on  that  scale  of  the  Central 
California  Map,  which  embraces  only  one  third  of  the  area  of  the  State, 
but  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  its  population,  will  render  it  less  necessary 
to  use  so  large  a  scale  for  the  very  thinly  inhabited  region  of  the 
extreme  north  and  south. 

To  pass  to  the  statement  of  what  is  accomplished  in  collecting  the 
materials  and  putting  them  on  paper,  in  accordance  with  the  above  plan, 
the  following  is  subniitted  : 

(a)  Scale  of  a  mile  to  two  inches. — On  this  scale  a  map  of  the  vicinity 
of  Monte  Diablo  has  been  completed,  and  is  now  ready  for  the  engraver. 
It   is   two  and    a   half  by  three  feet  in  size,  and  embraces  the  most ' 
important  coal  deposits  yet  discovered  in  the  State.     It  covers  an  area  of 
one  hundred  and  seventy  square  miles.'     The  Map  of  the  Yosemite  Valley, 
made  by  Mr.  Gardner,  and  engraved  for  the  Yosemite  Book,  is  also  on 
this^cale.     It  is  fifteen  inches  by  twenty-four  in  size. 

(b)  Scale  of  two  miles  to  one  inch. — On  this  scale  the  "Map  of  the  vicin-^ 
ity  of  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco"  has  been  drawn  and  engraved.     This 
map  covers  an  area  of  four  thousand  two  hundred  and  forty-eight  square 
miles  of  land,  just  about  equal  to  that  of  the  State  of  Connecticut.     It  is 
four  feet  by  three  in  size,  and  has  been  engraved  on  two  sheets.     It 
embraces  the  whole  of  San  Francisco,  San  Mateo,  Contra  Costa,  Ala- 
meda,  and:Marin   Counttes,  a  large  portion  of  Santa  Cruz  and  Santa 
Clara,  and  a  part  of  Solano,  Sonoma,  and   Napa.     This   is   the   most 
densely  settled  portion  of  the  State,  containing  as  it  does  the  heart  of 
the  agricultural  and  commercial  region.     Over  one  third  of  the  popula 
tion  of  California  reside  within  its  borders.     This  map  has  been  engraved 
in  New  York,  and  copies  of  it  are  expected  by  the  next  steamer.     Much 
delay  in  issuing  it  has  been  caused  by  the  necessity  of  sending  proof 
sheets  back  and  forth  from  San  Francisco  to  New  York,  and  also  by  the 
numerous  change^  which  have  been  made  in  the  boundaries  of  ranches 
during  the  past  two  years. 

On  the  same  scale  as  the  Bay  Map,  three  maps  of  the  central  counties 
of  the  State  along  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  including  the  principal  mining 
region  of  the  State,  are  projected.  Of  these,  the  northern  one  embraces 
Plunlas  and  Sierra,  and  parts  of  Yuba  and  \Butte  Counties;  the  central, 
Nevada,  Placer,  El  Dorado,  Amador,  and  Calaveras,  and  portions  of 
Yuba,  Butte,  Sutter,  Sacramento,  and  San  Joaquin;  the  southern,  part 
of  Calaveras,  all  of  Tuolumne  and  Mariposa,  and  parts  of  Stanislaus, 
Merced,  and  Fresno  Counties.  Of  these,  the  fieldwork  for  Plumas  -and 
Sierra  is  nearly  completed,  and  the  map  can  be  drawn  whenever  the 
state  of  our  funds  permits  it.  The  Central  County  Map  is  commenced, 
and  the  fieldwork  about  one  third  completed ;  that  of  the  southern 
counties  is  also  about  one  third  completed.  These  maps  are  intended  to 
show  the  minute  details  of  the  topography;  the  position  of  all  towns, 
villages,  mining  camps,  and  ranches;  the  roads, mines,  mills,  and  ditches; 
and,  in  short,  to  answer  all  the  requirements  of  the  different  counties 
for  geographical  purposes. 

On  the  same  scal$  as  the  Bay  Map  is  also  drawn  the  "  Map  of  a  por 
tion  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  adjacent  to  the  Yosemite."  This  is  thirty 
inches  by  twenty  in  size,  embracing  between  two  and  three  thousand 


10 

square  miles  of  one  of  the  roughest  and  most  picturesque  regions  of 
the  State.  It  extends  from  Mariposa  and  Big  Oak  Flat  on  the  west,  to 
the  head  of  the  San  Joaquin  and  Mono  Lake  on  the  east,  it  is  the  first 
accurate  map  of  any  high  mountain  region  ever  prepared  in  the  United 
States.  This  map  is  now  drawn,  and  in  the  hands  of  the  engravers.  It 
is  intended  to  accompany  the  Yosemite  Book. 

A  large  amount  of  material  in  Kern,  Tulare,  Inyo,  Alpine,  and  Mono 
Counties  has  been  plotted  on  this  scale,  not  necessarily  for  publication, 
but  for  use  in  compiling  the  general  map  of  the  State. 

(c)  Scale  of  six  miles  to  one  inch. — This  is  the  scale  adopted  for  the 
Central  California  Map,  which  embraces  the  region  from  Owen's  Lake 
north  to  Lassen's  Peak,  and  from  Clear  Lake  east  to  the  meridian,  which 
passes  a  little  east  of  Owen's  Lake  and  a  few  miles  west  of  Austin, 
Nevada.  It  is  embraced  between  the  parallels  of  36°  and  40°  30'  and 
the  meridians  of  117°  30'  and  123°.  It  is  in  four  sheets,  each  twenty- 
four  inches  square,  and  covers  an  area  of  about  eighty  thousand  square 
miles,  of  which,  however,  owing  to  the  peculiar  shape  of  the  eastern 
boundary  of  California,  a  portion  is  within  the  State  of  Nevada — about 
eighteen  thousand  square  miles.  About  one  third  of  the  area  of  Califor 
nia  is  embraced  in  this  map,  and  as  before  remarked,  fully  ninety-five 
per  cent,  of  its  population,  according  to  the  last  census.  The  four  sheets 
are  intended  to  be  put  together  for  use  as  a  wall  map,  which  will  be 
about  four  feet  square.  Of  this  Central  California  Map,  the  southwest 
quarter,  embracing  the  region  of  the  coast  range  from  about  twenty 
miles  south  of  Monterey  to  Santa  Kosa,  and  «a  portion  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  in  Calaveras  and  Amador  Counties,  is  drawn  and  ready  for  the 
engraver.  The  southeast  quarter  is  also  partly  drawn,  and  the  field 
work  is  entirely  completed,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  section  east  of 
Owen's  Lake,  which  is  not  accessible  without  an  escort.  This  sheet, 
however,  will  be  completed  so  as  to  be  ready  for  the  engraver  in  the 
spring,  making  half  the  map  done.  Of  the  remaining  haft',  the  eastern 
quarter  is  nearly  finished  as  to  fieldwork,  say  four  fifths  completed, 
while  the  western  quarter  is  about  half  done.  With  two  parties  in  the 
field  next  season,  this  map  can  be  completed  and  drawn,  ready  for  publi 
cation,  in  about  two  years.  This,  the  largest  inland  work  of  topography 
yet  undertake^  in  the  United  States,  as  it  aims  to  give  the  topography 
as  accurately  and  as  much  in  detail  as  it  can  be  shown  on  the  scale 
adopted,  of  eighty  thousand  square  miles  of  country,  a  large  part  of 
which  is  very  mountainous,  including  the  highest  and  roughest  eleva 
tions  in  the  country,  and  probably  on  the  North  American  Continent. 
The  Nevada  portion  of  the  map  will  be  filled  in  from  various  sources, 
among  which  may  be  particularly  mentioned  the  Central  Pacific  Kail- 
road  surveys,  and  the  work  carried  on  in  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty- 
seven  by  the  United  States,  both  under  the  authority  of  the  War  arid  of 
the  Interior  Departments.  Enough  has  been  done  this  year  in  Nevada 
to  give  a  very  good  idea  of  the  topography  of  the  western  and  central 
portion  of  the  State,  and  to  make  the  worthlessness  of  the  maps  com 
piled  from  the  previously  obtained  data  appear  perfectly  evident.  To 
form  an  idea  of  the  size  of  California  and  the  magnitude  of  our  work,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  the  area  embraced  on  our  Central  Map  is 
twice  that  of  Ohio,  one  of  the  largest  States  east  of  the  Mississippi. 

On  the  same  scale  of  six  miles  to  an  inch,  we  commenced  at  an  early 
period  in  the  survey  a  map  of  the  coast  ranges  south  of  the  Bay  of 
Monterey,  and  extending  to  Santa  Barbara.  It  is  three  feet  by  two  and 
a  half  in  dimensions,  and  embraces  about  sixteen  thousand  square  miles 


11 

of  territory,  in  Monterey,  Santa  Barbara,  and  San  Luis  Obispo  Counties. 
The  information  obtained  from  time  to  time- during  the  progress  of  the 
survey  has  been  added  to  it,  and  it  is  now  completed  as  far  as  the  fifth 
standard  line  south  of  the  base  line.  A  party  would  be  able  to  finish  the 
fieldwork  remaining  to  be  done  on  this  map  in  two  seasons,  or  six 
months  of  fieldwork. 

(d)  St'ftle  of  ten  miles  to  one  inch. — This  will  probably  be  the  scale 
adopted  for  the  final  general  map  of  the  whole  State,  and  this  map 
would  be  about  five  feet  square,  in  four  sheets,  and  would  also  necessarily 
embrace  a  large  portion  of  Nevada,  unless  the  space  were  designedly 
left  blank.  For  this  map  we  have  already  a  large  amount  of  material, 
comprised  in  not  less  than  one  hundred  sheets,  portions  of  which  have, 
of  course,  been  used  in  the  other  maps  now  in  progress.  All  these  sheets 
should  be  looked  on  as  so  much  plane  table  work,  to  be  compiled  here 
after  and  co-ordinated  by  a  system  of  carefully  conducted  astronomical 
observations,  which  will  fix  the  position  of  a  considerable  number  of 
points  on  the  different  sheets  with  great  accuracy.  Until  this  is  done 
we  can  never  have  even  a  tolerable  map  of  the  whole  State,  as  there  are 
errors  and  discrepancies  in  the  work  of  the  United  States  Land  Office 
which  can  only  be  cleared  up  by  a  careful  series  of  astronomical  obser 
vations.  The  portions  of  the  State  where  most  remains  to  be  done  in  the 
topography  are  the  southeastern  and  northwestern  corners,  regions  the 
most  thinly  inhabited  of  any,  and  where  Indians  have  frequently  been 
very  troublesome. 

2.    PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY. 

The  collection  of  materials  in  this  department  has  gone  on  uninter 
ruptedly.  The  number  of  barometrical  observations  for  the  determina 
tion  of  absolute  heights  of  important  points,  has  greatly  increased  during 
the  past  two  years.  The  important  investigations  of  Colonel  R.  S. 
Williamson  in  regard  to  the  fluctuations  of  the  barometer  on  this  coast, 
are  now  in  process  of  publication  ;  and  when  this  volume  shall  have 
been  completed,  it  will  be  advisable  for  us  to  commence  a  systematic 
revision  of  all  our  barometrical  works,  and  to  publish  the  final  connected 
results  in  a  tabular  form.  We  shall  be  able  to  give  a  close  approximation 
to  the  heights  of  between  one  and  two  thousand  points  in  this  State, 
including  all  the  higher  mountains  and  most  of  the  towns  and  mining 
camps.  To  compute  the  observations  already  made  will,  however, 
require  not  less  than  a  year's  unremitting  labor;  but  the  results  will  be 
of  great  practical  as  well  as  scientific  value. 

We  have  continued  the  investigation  of  other  subjects  connected  with 
the  physical  geography  of  the  State.  Among  them,  the  nature  and  dis 
tribution  of  the  forest  trees  may  be  mentioned,  as  of  peculiar  interest. 

A  beginning  has  been  made  in  the  construction  of  a  map  on  which  the 
boundaries  of  the  areas  occupied  by  the  principal  groups  of  trees  are 
laid  down. 

3.     GENERAL  GEOLOGY. 

For  the  reasons  stated  above,  much  less  progress  has  been  made  in  the. 
strictly  geological  than  in  the  topographical  department  Still,  a  very 
considerable  amount  of  work  has  Been  done,  as  will  be  seen  from  the 
above  synopsis  of  the  operations  and  movements  of  the  various  parties 
during  the  past  two  years.  This  synopsis  will  also  show  where,  when 
and  by  what  persons  the  geological  work  has  been  executed. 


t  12 

A  large  amount  of  material  has  been  accumulated  for  the  remaining 
volume  of  geology  which  it  is  proposed  to  issue;  but  this  volume  will  be 
the  last  one  published  of  the  series,  as  it  will  be  intended  as  a  complete 
resume  of  all  the  geological  and  palffiontological  work.  It  will  be  accom 
panied  by  all  the  necessary  sections,  showing  the  structure  of  the  moun 
tain  ranges,  and  with  a  geological  map  of  California,  and  probably  of  all 
the  Pacific  States  and  Territories. 

4.     PALAEONTOLOGY. 

But  little  exclusively  palseontological  work  has  been  done  within  the 
past  two  years,  as  Mr.  Gabb  has  been  employed  in  the  field  during  most 
of  the  time  when  in  the  service  of  the  survey,  as  will  be  seen  from  the 
synopsis  of  the  movements  of  our  parties  given  above.  Most  .of  the 
work  performed  has  been  in  the  way  of  arranging  the  collection  of 
fossils,  unpacking  the  materials  obtained,  and  selecting  such  as  wTas 
wanted  for  description.  (See  further  on,  under  the  head  of  "  Publica 
tions." 

5.     ECONOMICAL  GEOLOGY. 

It  is  proposed  in  this  department  to  prepare  first  that  portion  of  the 
report  which  includes  the  non-metalliferous  minerals.  Under  this  head 
will  be  included  coal,  all  bituminous  substances,  asphaltum,  maltha, 
petroleum,  building  materials,  cements,  paints,  ochres,  and  earthy  mate 
rials  in  general. 

No  plans  can  be  made  with  regard  to  the  continuation  of  the  econo- 
nomical  geology  so  as  to  embrace  the  full  and  complete  investigation  of 
the  mines  of  the  State,  unless  the  Legislature  can  be  induced  to  make  a 
more  liberal  provision  for  the  support  of  the  survey.  It  is  useless  to 
commence  in  this  department  unless  the  work  in  it  can  be  thoroughly 
done.  We  have  enough  already  of  crude  estimates,  superficial  investi 
gations,  and  other  worthless  rubbish.  If  properly  executed,  the  work 
in  this  department  will  be  of  the  greatest  pecuniary  value  to  the  State  ; 
but  the  Legislature  cannot  expect  results  of  this  high  importance  with 
out  any  outlay.  Eminent  mining  engineers  arid  chemists  cannot  be 
found  willing  to  work  with  salaries  less  than  the  wages  of  ordinary 
mechanics. 

6.     BOTANY. 

The  collection  of  material  for  the  botanical  report  has  been  continued 
during  the  past  two  years  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  but  a  trifling 
expense  to  the  State.  •  Mr.  Bolander  has  had  charge  of  this  department, 
and  has  made  extensive  additions  to  our  collections  and  to  the  material 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  botanical  collaborators  of  the  survey  in  the 
Eastern  States  and  in  Europe.  Indeed,  so  many  new  discoveries  have 
been  made,  that  the  thorough  wrorking  up  of  our  materials  seems  likely 
to  occupy  a  somewhat  longer  time  than  was  expected. 

Mr.  Bolander  was  in  the  field  from  April  eleventh,  eighteen  hundred 
and  sixty-six,  to  September  twenty-fifth,  collecting  in  Mariposa,  Tuol- 
umne,  and  Mono  Counties.  In  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-seven  he 
made  another  excursion  of  a  month  through  Sonoma,  Mendocino,  and 
Humboldt  Counties;  and  later  in  the  season,  spent  some  time  in  Santa 
Cruz  and  San  Mateo.  The  northern  part  of  the  State,  namely,  Trinity, 
Humboldt,  Klamath,  and  Del  Norte,  is  the  portion  which  now  most 
needs  botanical  exploration.  Another  month's  collecting  in  San  Diego 


13 

is  also  highly  desirable.     Professor  Brewer  thinks  that  the  volume  under 
his  charge  will  be  ready  for  the  press  during  the  next  year. 

7-    ZOOLOGY. 

All  that  has  been  done  in  this  department  will  be  found  further  on, 
under  the  heads  of  "  Publications  "  and  "  Museum/' 

8.    MUSEUM. 

The  same  statement  has  this  year  to  be  repeated  which  has  already 
been  made  so  many  times  before.  The  collections  of  the  survey  are 
large  and  valuable,  but  are  exposed  to  loss  by  tire,  and  are  placed  where 
there  is  no  possibility  of  displaying  them  in  a  proper  manner,  or  having 
them  open  to  the  general  public  so  as  to  form  an  attractive  and  instruc 
tive  exhibition. 

But  considerable  has  been  done  within  the  past  two  years  towards 
getting  our  multifarious  materials  in  order.  A  part  of  the  minerals, 
ores,  and  rock  specimens,  are  laid  out  on  shelves,  so  as  to  be  examined 
without  difficulty.  The  fossils  are  arranged  in  handsome  cases,  and 
named,  so  far  as  practicable,  so  that  they  can  be  consulted  by  students 
in  that  department.  The  shells  of  the  species  now  living  on  this  coast 
have  also  been  very  carefully  arranged,  named,  and  labelled,  and  can  be 
studied  at  all  times  by  those  interested  in  this  branch  of  natural  history. 
The  plants  have  been  placed  in  cases,  arranged  in  families  and  genera, 
so  far  as  known,  and  the  specific  names  are  added  as  fast  as  they  are 
received  from  the  various  authorities  engaged  in  working  them  up.  The 
cones  of  all  the  pines,  firs,  and  spruces,  the  seeds,  fruits,  etc.,  have  been 
arranged  in  drawers,  as  well  as  the  cryptogamic  vegetation  so  far  as  it 
has  yet  been  worked  out. 

9.     PUBLICATIONS. 

Since  the  last  session  of  the  Legislature,  the  following  publications 
have  been  issued  by  the  Survey : 

Pala&ontolofjy <  Vol.  II,  Section  1,  Part  1,  comprising  the  first  instalment 
of  the  Tertiary  Invertebrate  Fossils;  by  Mr.  Gabb.  This  is  accompa 
nied  by  thirteen  plates,  which  have  been  lithographed,  and  which  will 
soon  be  ready  for  delivery.  The  text  is  stereotyped.  It  is  estimated 
that  the  whole  of  this  volume  will  be  required  for  the  remainder  of  the 
Cretaceous  and  Tertiary  invertebrate  fossils.  A  third  volume  will  con 
tain  the  other  Secondary  and  the  Palaeosoic  fossils,  the  plants,  vertebrate 
remains,  and  the  microscopic  fossils,  the  material  for  these  researches 
being  already  in  the  hands  of  eminent  authorities  at  the  East. 

Geographical  Catalogue  of  the  Mollusca  found  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  j 
by  Dr.  Cooper.  This  was  prepared  to  facilitate  the  arrangement  of  the 
conchological  collection  and  for  convenience  in  exchanging.  It  contains 
the  names  and  localities  of  eight  hundred  and  twent}7-five  species,  so 
printed  that  the  catalogqe  may  serve  for  labels  as  well  as  for  a  check 
list. 

Mining  Statistics,  No.  1,  containing  the  quartz  mines  and  mills  between 
the  Merced  and  Stanislaus  Rivers;  by  A.  .Remond. 

In  the  zoological  series  the  drawing  and  engraving  for  the  volumes  of 
birds  and  fishes  has  been  going  on  steadily,  and  that  of  the  birds  is 
believed  to  be  so  nearly  completed  that  the  work  can  go  to  press  imme- 


14 

diatcly.  Arrangements  have  also  been  made  for  editing  and  issuing  the 
volume  of  conchology,  and  a  beginning  made  on  the  mammals. 

The  Bay  Map  in  two  sheets,  as  mentioned  above,  has  been  in  the 
engraver's  hands  for  more  than  a  year,  and  is  supposed  to  be  on  its  way 
out  to  California.  It  is  intended  to  be  sold  separately,  in  various  styles, 
and  also  to  form  one  of  the  series  in  the  volume  of  maps,  sections,  and 
illustrations. 

Both  maps  for  the  Yosemite  Book  are  drawn,  and  one  is  engraved. 
The  illustrations  are  also  prepared,  and  the  work  can  go  to  press  at  an 
early  day. 

The  finished  sheet  of  the  Central  California  Map  will  soon  be  sent  to 
the  engraver. 

The  preparation  of  the  first  volume  of  the  Economical  Geology  will  be 
commenced  as  soon  as  favorable  action  has  been  had  by  the  Legislature 
on  the  question  of  the  continuance  of  the  survey. 

The  plan  of  the  "Yosemite  Book/'  in  its  two  editions  of  the  "Guide 
Book  "  and  "  Gift  Book/'  will  be  found  stated  at  length  in  the  report  of 
the  Yosemite  Commissioners.  It  is  intended  that  the  "  Gift  Book"  shall 
be  as  elegant  a  volume  as  has  ever  been  published  in  this  country. 

10.     ACCOUNTS  AND  EXPENDITURES. 

The  accounts  of  the  survey,  and  a  complete  statement  of  all  expendi 
tures  in  the  different  departments,  will  be  submitted  at  an  early  date  to 
the  committee  of  the  Legislature  to  which  the  subject  of  the  geological 
survey  may  be  referred. 

It  may  be  stated,  however,  that  our  expenditures  have  overrun  the 
appropriation  made  for  the  survey.  At  the  end  of  the  current  year  I 
shall  have  expended  about  eight  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  more  than 
the  total  appropriation,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  concise  state 
ment  : 

STATEMENT  OF  EXPENDITURES  OF  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY. 


To  December  31,  1805,*  as  per  account  previously  rendered. 

January  1  to  December  31,  1866 

January  1  to  September  30,  1867 

Estimate  October  1  to  December  31,  1867 


Total  appropriations. 


Deficiency  at  end  of  1867 


$89,998  71 

22,617  66 

15,853  40 

5,600  00 


$134.069  77 
125,600  00 


$8,469  77 


Allowing  that  all  the  fieldwork  is  discontinued,  and  nothing  done  for 
the  next  six  months  except  to  plot  and  write  up  the  work  already  on 
hand,  it  will  require  at  least  six  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  to  con 
tinue  the  survey  to  the  end  of  the  current  fiscal  year,  and  I  have  to  ask, 


#See  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Mines  and  Mining  in  the  Assembly  to  the  last  Legislature,  in 
which  our  expenditures  are  tabulated  in  full  to  December  thirty-first,  eighteen  hundred  and 
sixty-five. 


15 

therefore,  that  an  appropriation  for  the  continuance  of  the  survey  during 
the  present  fiscal  year,  of  at  least  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  be  inserted  in 
the  deficiency  bill,  or  else  acted  on  separately  near  the  beginning  of  the 
session.  Should  this  not  be  passed,  it  will  be  my  duty  to  dismiss  all  my 
assistants  and  to  discontinue  the  survey  at  once,  a  step  which  I  should 
greatly  regret  having  to  take,  as  there  is  much  valuable  matter  in  my 
hands  either  in  process  of  publication  or  nearly  ready  to  go  to  the 
printer  and  engraver. 

I  might  have  discontinued  the  survey  at  the  time  the  appropriation 
was  exhausted;  but  I  preferred  to  take  the  risk  of  overrunning  the 
appropriation  rather  than  abandon  the  work,  although  it  has  not  been 
without  difficulty  that  I  have  continued  it,  and  not  without  considerable 
pecuniary  embarrassment. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  high  respect, 
Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  D.  WHITNEY, 

State  Geologist. 


REPORT 


COMMISSIONERS  TO  MANAGE 


YOSEMITE    VALLEY 


For   the    Years    1866-7. 


SAN    FRANCISCO: 

TOWNE    AND    BACON. 

1868. 


REPORT. 


To  His  EXCELLENCY,  F.  F.  Low, 

Governor  of  California : 

SIR — As  required  by  law,  the  "Commissioners  to  Manage  the 
Yosemite  Valley  and  Mariposa  Big  Tree  Grove  "  beg  leave  to  submit 
the  following  report : 

The  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
by  an  Act  approved  June  30,  1864,  granted  to  the  State  of  Califor 
nia,  on  certain  stipulated  conditions,  the  Yosemite  Valley  and  the 
Mariposa  Grove  of  Big  Trees  ;  and,  by  an  Act  of  its  Legislature,  the 
State  accepted  the  same  and  pledged  itself  to  the  fulfillment  of  these 
conditions.  In  the  language  of  the  Act  of  Congress,  the  grant  was 
accepted  "  on  the  express  conditions  that  the  premises  shall  be  held 
for  public  use,  resort  and  recreation,  and  shall  be  inalienable  for  all 
time."  It  was  also  stipulated  by  Congress  that  the  management  of 
the  premises  thu^  granted  should  be  in  the  hands  of  nine  Commis 
sioners,  of  whom  the  Governor  of  the  State  should  be  one,  and  who 
should  also  have  the  power  to  fill  vacancies  in  the  Board  caused 
either  by  death,  removal  or  resignation.  To  the  Governor  was  also 
confided  by  Congress  the  power  of  appointing  his  eight  associates, 
the  first  Commissioners,  and  this  was  done  by  Executive  proclama 
tion,  dated  September  28,  1864.  The  Commissioners  first  appointed 
were  F.  Law  Olmsted,  J.  D.  Whitney,  William  Ashburner,  I.  W. 
Raymond,  E.  S.  Holden,  Alexander  Deering,  George  W.  Coulter  and 
Galen  Clark,  all  of  whom  continue  in  office,  with  the  exception  of 
Mr.  Olmsted,  who  has  returned  to  the  East  and  resigned  his  place, 
which  has  been  filled  by  the  appointment  of  Henry  W.  Cleaveland  of 
San  Francisco. 

The  surveys  necessary  to  establish  the  boundaries  of  the  grants 
in  question,  as  required  by  the  Act  of  Congress,  were  duly  made  in 


the  autumn  of  1864,  by  King  and  Gardner,  their  notes  filed  in  the 
office  of  the  United  States  Surveyor-General  of  California,  and  the 
official  plat  of  the  same  has  been  forwarded  to  Washington  and  ac 
cepted  by  the  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office,  and  this 
plat  is,  in  the  language  of  the  Act  of  Congress,  the  evidence  of  the 
locus,  extent  and  limits  of  the  grants  of  the  Valley  and  the  Grove. 
A  map  of  the  Yosemite  Valley  was  drawn  by  Mr.  Gardner,  on  a 
scale  of  two  inches  to  one  mile,  showing  the  boundaries  of  the  Yo 
semite  Valley  grant  and  the  topography  of  its  immediate  vicinity. 
This  map  is  now  in  the  archives  of  the  Commission,  and  has  been 
loaned  by  them  to  the  Geological  Survey  to  be  engraved  for  use  in 
the  publication  authorized  by  the  Legislature,  of  which  some  account 
will  be  given  further  on  in  this  report.  For  the  payment  of  King 
and  Gardner,  for  the  surveys  necessary  to  establish  the  boundaries 
of  the  grant,  an  appropriation  was  made  by  the  last  Legislature. 

At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Legislature  of  California  after  the  pas 
sage  of  the  Act  of  Congress  making  the  grant  to  the  State  of  the  Yo 
semite  Valley  and  Big  Tree  Grove,  an  Act  was  passed  accepting  the 
grant  on  the  stipulated  conditions,  confirming  the  appointment  of 
the  Commissioners,  organizing  them  into  a  body  for  legal  purposes 
and  empowering  them  to  make  regulations  and  by-laws  for  their  own 
government.  The  Act  of  the '  Legislature  also  contained  provisions 
making  it  a  penal  offense  to  commit  depredations  on  the  premises, 
and  other  sections  in  regard  to  further  surveys  in  and  about  the 
Valley  and  the  Grove.  It  also  appropriated  $2,000  for  carrying  out 
the  purposes  of  the  Act,  authorizing  the  appointment  of  a  Guardian, 
whose  salary  should  not  exceed  $500  per  annum. 

Soon  after  the  passage  of  the  Act  of  the  Legislature  accepting  the 
grant,  and  providing  for  the  organization  of  the  Commissioners,  they 
met,  at  the  call  of  the  Governor,  and  organized  themselves  by  the  ap 
pointment  of  a  President,  Vice-President,  Secretary,  and  Treasurer, 
and  an  Executive  Committee.  They  also  adopted  a  set  of 'by-laws  for 
their  own  government,  a  copy  of  which  is  attached  to  this  report. 
Copies  of  all  the  other  official  documents  cited  above  will  also  be 
found  printed  with  the  by-laws  for  convenient  reference.  The  Com 
missioners  furthermore  appointed  one  of  their  number,  Galen  Clark, 
residing  at  Clark's  ranch,  near  the  Big  Tree  Grove,  guardian  of  the 
grove  and  valley,  fixing  his  salary  at  the  maximum  allowed  by  law, 
namely,  $500  per  annum. 

As  by  far  the  largest  amount  of  work  done  in  and  about  the  valley, 
in  consequence  of  the  Act  of  the  Legislature,  has  been  executed  by 


the  Geological  Surveying  Corps,  reference  will  first  be  made  to  this 
branch  of  the  subject 

By  Section  5  of  the  Act  of  the  Legislature  accepting  the  grant  of 
Congress,  the  State  Geologist  was  authorized  to  make  further  explora 
tions  on  the  grants  and  in  the  adjacent  region  of  the  Sierra  Nevada, 
for  the  purpose  of  preparing  a  full  description  of  the  country,  with 
maps  and  illustrations,  to  be  published  and  sold  as  other  works  issued 
by  the  Geological  Survey  are,  namely,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Common 
School  Fund  of  the  State. 

As  early  in^&6g  as  the  season  would  permit,  a  party  was  organized 
by  the  State  Geologist  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  detailed  geograph 
ical  and  geological  survey  of  the  region  of  the  high  Sierra  adjacent 
to  the  Yosemite  Valley.  This  party  consisted  of  C.  King,  J.  T.  Gard 
ner,  H.  N.  Bolander,  and  C.  R.  Brinley,  with  two  men  employed  to 
pack  and  cook.  They  commenced  work  early  in  June,  and  continued 
in  the  field  until  the  latter  end  of  October,  being  accompanied  by  the 
State  Geologist  during  a  portion  of  the  time.  Owing  to  unavoidable 
causes,  this  party  was  obliged  to  return  from  the  field  before  the  work 
was  completed.  But  enough  had  been  done  to  enable  Mr.  Gardner 
to  commence  and  partly  finish  a  map,  and  the  following  plan  of  pub 
lication  was  determined  on  by  the  State  Geologist. 

The  work  will  consist  of  text,  maps,  and  photographic  and  other 
illustrations,  and  two  editions  will  be  issued — one  without  photo 
graphs,  the  other  with  them.  One  will  be  called  the  "Yosemite 
Guide  Book,"  the  other  the  "  Yosemite  Gift  Book."  The  Guide  Book 
will  contain  the  text  of  the  Gift  Book  and  the  same  maps,  but  the 
photographic  illustrations  will  be  omitted.  The  text  will  be  such  as 
will  be  suitable  for  a  complete  and  thorough  guide,  or  hand-book,  to 
the  Valley  and  its  surroundings,  including  the  high  Sierra,  and,  in 
general,  the  region  between  Mariposa  and  Big  Oak  Flat  on  the  west, 
and  the  head  of  the  San  Joaquin  and  Mono  Lake  on  the  east.  The 
map  of  the  region  thus  designated  is  drawn  on  a  scale  of  two  miles 
to  one  inch,  and  is  thirty  inches  by  twenty  in  size.  It  contains  all 
the  minute  details  of  the  topography  of  one  of  the  most  elevated  and 
roughest  portions  of  the  State,  and  is  the  first  accurate  map  of  any 
high  mountain  region  ever  prepared  in  the  United  States. 

The  surveys  for  the  completion  of  this  map  were  continued  during 
the  months  of  August  and  September  of  the  present  year,  by  a  party 
of  the  Geological  Survey,  in  charge  of  C.  F.  Hoffmann,  and  the  work 
is  now  complete,  and  the  map  ready  for  the  engravers.  The  photo 
graphic  illustrations,  twenty-four  in  number,  made  by  C.  E.  Watkins, 


with  the  Dallmeyer  lens  of  the  Survey,  are  also  all  printed  and  deliv 
ered,  and  the  work  can  be  put  to  press  as  soon  as  the  State  Geolo 
gist  has  time  to  attend  to  it.  It  is  believed  that  it  will  be  one  of  the 
most  elegant  books  ever  issued  from  an  American  press,  and  that  it 
will  have  no  little  influence  in  drawing  attention  to  the  stupendous 
scenery  of  the  Yosemite  and  its  vicinity. 

Mr.  Hoffmann  and  party  also  made  a  careful  survey  of  the  bottom 
of  the  valley,  including  all  the  land  within  the  talus  or  debris  fallen 
from  the  walls,  and  this  work  has  been  plotted  on  a  scale  of  ten 
chains  to  one  inch,  making  a  map  fifty  inches  by  thirty  in  size,  with 
the  number  of  acres  in  each  tract  of  meadow,  timber  and  fern  land 
designated  upon  it,  and  also  the  boundaries  of  the  claims  of  the  set 
tlers  in  the  valley,  and  the  number  of  acres  inclosed  and  claimed  by 
them.  This  map  was  found  to  be  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  the 
Commission,  and  an  appropriation  will  be  asked  for  to  pay  the  ex 
pense  of  the  survey  and  of  preparing  the  map. 

The  principal  grove  of  trees  in  the  Big  Tree  Grant  has  also  been 
carefully  surveyed  by  the  State  Geologist,  assisted  by  Hoffmann,  each 
tree  of  over  one  foot  in  diameter  measured,  and  the  height  of  a  num 
ber  of  them  accurately  determined.  There  are  in  the  main  grove, 
of  trees  over  one  foot  in  diameter  (that  is,  of  the  Big  Trees  or  Sequoia 
gigantea\  just  three  hundred  and  sixty-five,  besides  a  great  num 
ber  of  smaller  ones.  The  trees  thus  measured  have  been  plotted 
and  numbered,  so  that  their  exact  position  and  size  relative  to  each 
other  can  be  seen  at  a  glance. 

The  Commissioners,  seconded  by  the  Geological  Survey,  have 
thus  done  all  that  is  for  the  present  requisite  toward  obtaining  all 
the  necessary  statistical  data  in  regard  to  the  valley  and  grove,  and 
for  making  this  information  public  in  an  attractive  form.  It  may  be 
added  that  the  Yosemite  Guide-book  and  the  Yosemite  Gift-book 
will  both  be  sold,  as  are  other  publications  of  the  survey,  and  the 
proceeds  paid  into  the  treasury  of  State,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Com 
mon  School  Fund. 

One  of  the  important  duties  of  the  Commissioners  is  the  care  of  the 
valley  and  grove,  so  as  to  secure  them  and  their  surroundings  from 
devastation  by  fire,  and  from  wanton  injury  by  cutting  down  trees 
and  defacing  natural  objects.  The  care  of  the  Guardian  has  pre 
vented  fires  from  running  in  the  Big  Tree  Grove,  and  to  a  consider 
able  extent  has  protected  the  Valley  from  wanton  injury.  There 
have  been  instances,  however,  of  the  felling  or  mutilation  of  con 
spicuous  and  beautiful  trees,  which  instances  were  not  discovered 


until  after  the  offenders  had  left  the  valley  and  were  far  away  from 
the  place  where  the  mischief  was  done.  It  is  considered  necessary 
by  the  Commissioners  that  there  should  be  a  Guardian  and  sub- 
Guardian,  one  or  the  other — during  the  season  of  visitors  at  least — 
always  in  or  about  the  Valley  and  Big  Tree  Grove,  in  order  to  bring 
about  entire  safety  and  security  that  wanton  damages  will  not  be 
inflicted.  It  is  also  necessary  that  the  Guardian  and  sub-Guardian 
should  be  endowed  by  the  State  with  police  or  constabulary  authority, 
so  that  offenders  may  be  arrested  on  the  spot  where  the  mischief  is 
done,  as  otherwise  it  will  be  entirely  impossible  for  the  Commis 
sioners  to  answer  for  the  safety  of  the  property  committed  to  their 
charge.  The  localities  are  so  distant  from  the  county-seat  or  resi 
dence  of  a  magistrate,  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  Guardian, 
unless  this  change  is  made,  to  obtain  a  warrant  for  the  arrest  of  the 
offenders  and  get  back  to  the  place  where  the  offense  was  committed, 
until  long  after  the  offenders  had  left  the  valley. 

Aside  from  wanton  trespassers  in  the  valley,  there  are  other  per 
sons  residing  there  to  whose  cases  we  will  now  direct  attention. 
And,  in  order  to  understand  the  position  of  the  parties  in  question, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  go  back  and  make  a  brief  statement  of  the 
history  of  the  discovery  and  settlement  of  the  valley,  which  we  will 
now  proceed  to  do,  relying  on  information  furnished  by  persons  who 
have  been  acquainted  with  the  region  since  it  was  first  explored  by 
white  men. 

The  Yosemite  Valley  was  first  discovered  and  entered  by  white 
men  in  March,  1852,  and  by  a  party  commanded  by  Captain  John 
Boling ;  this  party  was  in  pursuit  of  Indians,  for  the  purpose  of  tak 
ing  them  to  the  Reservation  on  the  Fresno.  During  the  same  year 
a  party  of  miners  came  into  the  valley  and  were  attacked  by  the  In 
dians,  and  two  of  the  whites  killed.  They  were  buried  near  the 
Bridal  Veil  Meadow.  Some  persons  connected  with  Captain  Bol- 
ing's  party  communicated  to  the  newspapers  an  account  of  the 
wonders  of  the  valley,  and  especially  of  the  Yosemite  Fall,  which 
was  described  as  being  "  more  than  a  thousand  feet  high."  This 
notice  meeting  the  eye  of  J.  M.  Hutchings,  at  that  time  engaged  in 
collecting  materials  for  'the  California  Magazine,  to  illustrate  the 
scenery  of  this  State,  he  collected  a  party  and  made  the  first  regular 
tourist's  visit  to  the  valley  in  the  summer  of  1855.  This  party  was 
followed  the  same  year  by  another  from  Mariposa,  consisting  of  six 
teen  or  eighteen  persons.  The  next  year  (1856)  the  regular  travel 
commenced,  and  the  trail  on  the  Mariposa  side  of  the  valley,  from 


8 

White  &  Hatch's,  was  opened  by  Mann  Brothers,  at  a  cost  of  about 
$700.  This  trail  was  purchased  in  1859  by  the  citizens  of  Mariposa 
County  and  made  free.  The  sum  paid  was  $200. 

The  first  house  was  built  in  the  Yosemite  Valley,  nearly  opposite 
the  Yosemite  Fall,  in  the  autumn  of  1856;  this  is  still  standing,  and 
has  been  usually  known  as  the  Lower  Hotel.  At  the  locality  about 
half  a  mile  farther  up  the  valley,  and  now  known  as  "  Hutchings's 
Yosemite  Hotel,"  a  canvass  house  was  built  by  G.  A.  Kite,  in  the 
spring  of  1857,  and  in  the  spring  of  the  next  year  the  present  house 
was  built  by  Hite  &  Beardsley.  They  kept  it  as  a  public  house  that 
season,  and  it  afterwards  passed  into  the  hands  of  Sullivan  &  Cash- 
man,  for  debt.  It  was  kept  1859-61  by  Peck,  then  by  Longhurst, 
and  from  1864  by  Hutchings,  who  came  to  the  valley  in  the  spring 
of  that  year,  having  purchased,  or  made  arrangements  to  purchase, 
the  house  of  Sullivan  &  Cashman.  The  claim,  however,  as  far  as 
the  land  is  concerned,  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  property  of  Hite 
&  Beardsley,  at  least  as  much  their  property  as  a  claim  of  that  kind 
on  unsurveyed  land,  and  in  that  residence,  could  be  that  of  any  per 
son.  In  the  spring  of  1857,  Cunningham  &  Beardsley  had  a  store 
house  and  shop  a  little  above  the  present  Hutchings'  Hotel.  The 
lower  hotel  was  kept  by  John  Neal  in  1857,  and  by  Cunningham 
from  1858  to  1861.  In  1862-3  it  was  not  occupied  except  by  oc 
casional  stragglers.  For  the  past  three  or  four  years  it  has  been 
occupied  by  G.  F.  Leidig.  j .  C.  Lamon  took  possession  of  the 
upper  end  of  the  valley,  above  Hutchings's,  in  1860,  and  has  con 
tinued  to  reside  there  since  that  time,  being  the  only  permanent 
resident  in  the  valley  prior  to  1864. 

At  the  time  the  Governor's  proclamation  was  issued,  namely, 
September  28,  1864,  the  persons  residing  in  the  valley  and  claiming 
rights  there  were  J.  C.  Lamon  and  J.  M.  Hutchings.  Ira  B.  Folsom 
also  claimed  to  own  the  ferry  across  the  Merced,  and  the  ladders  by 
which  access  is  had  to  the  summit  of  the  Vernal  Fall.  There  were 
probably  other  and  conflicting  claims  to  houses  and  land  in  the  Val 
ley  ;  but,  if  such  existed,  the  Commissioners  have  never  been  officially 
notified  of  them,  nor  would  it  have  been  in^  their  power  to  recognize 
them,  or  to  decide  between  them. 

The  claim  of  Lamon,  as  defined  by  himself  and  limited  by  his 
fences,  occupies  the  upper  part  of  the  valley,  at  the  junction  of  the 
Tenaya  Fork  with  the  main  Merced  River,  and  comprises  378.76 
aqres,  of  which  about  149  acres  are  good  meadow  land,  the  re 
mainder  being  chiefly  a  strong  soil,  covered  with  ferns  to  a  consider- 


able  extent,  and  requiring  a  large  amount  of  labor  to  reduce  it  to 
cultivation.  Lam  on  has  cleared  and  subdued  about  twenty  acres, 
and  planted  a  large  number  of  fruit  trees,  and  has  been  especially 
successful  in  raising  berries  of  several  kinds — especially  strawberries, 
raspberries,  and  blackberries — which  have  found  a  ready  market  in 
the  valley  among  the  visitors.  There  is  no  question  that  Lamon 
would  have  had  a  clear  claim  as  a  preemptionist  under  the  United 
States  laws,  had  this  been  ordinary  surveyed  land,  or  provided  he 
had  remained  upon  it  until  it  was  surveyed  and  sold,  supposing  it  to 
have  followed  the  usual  course  of  United  States  surveyed  lands.  In 
view  of  the  position  of  Lamon's  claim,  which  is  so  situated  that  his 
buildings  are  not  at  all  conspicuous  in  the  valley,  and  of  the  useful 
character  of  the  work  done  by  him,  the  Commissioners  did  not  hesi 
tate  in  offering  him  the  greatest  privilege  it  was  in  their  power  to 
grant,  namely — a  lease  of  his  premises  for  the  term  of  ten  years,  at 
the  nominal  rent  of  $i  per  annum. 

Hutchings's  improvements  consist  of  a  small  log  house  and  a  large 
barn  and  shed,  with  a  garden  and  orchard,  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Merced,  as  well  as  the  hotel  on  the  south  side,  said  to  have  been 
purchased  of  Sullivan  &  Cashman.  Hutchings  has  resided  perma 
nently  in  the  valley  since  the  spring  of  1864,  but  most  of,  if  not  all 
his  improvements  have  been  made  since  the  Governor's  proclamation 
was  issued  taking  possession  of  the  valley  in  the  name  of  the  State. 
It  is  fair  to  say,  however,  that  Hutchings's  improvements  have  been 
made  with  an  eye  to  the  preservation  of  the  beauty  of  the  valley 
unimpaired,  so  far  as  was  consistent  with  his  ideas  of  the  amount  of 
stock  necessary  to  be  kept  for  the  use  of  the  hotel.  Hutchings's  claim 
embraces  118.63  acres,  chiefly  of  the  best  meadow  land,  and  the 
best,  or  one  of  the  best,  sites  for  building  in  the  valley.  Consider 
ing  the  fact  of  Hutchings's  long  residence  in  this  place,  and  of  his 
evident  desire  to  effect  his  improvements  without  injury  to  the  pic 
turesque  appearance  of  his  surroundings,  and  taking  into  view  the 
small  number  of  persons  who  up  to  this  time  have  visited  the  Yo- 
semite  —  so  that  keeping  a  public  house  has  not  been  nor  is  likely 
for  some  time  to  be  a  matter  of  profit,*  the  Commissioners  were  dis- 

*  The  largest  number  of  visitors  to  the  Yosemite  was  in  1866,  when  probably 
between  six  hundred  and  seven  hundred  persons  were  there,  the  number  having 
been  nearly  double  that  of  the  previous  year.  In  1867  there  were  probably  not 
more  than  four  hundred  and  fifty  persons  in  the  valley.  These  numbers  include 
persons  camping  as  well  as  those  stopping  at  the  hotels.  The  causes  of  the 
smaller  number  of  visitors  during  this  year  are  supposed  to  be — first,  the  late- 


IO 

posed  to  be  as  liberal  to  him  as  the  powers  intrusted  to  them  would 
permit.  They  therefore  offered  him  a  lease  for  ten  years  of  160  acres 
of  land,  including  the  hotel  and  house,  at  a  nominal  rent.  Hutch- 
ings,  however,  believing  that  he  has  a  legal  claim  to  a  fee  simple  of 
the  land  occupied  by  himself,  refused  to  accept  a  lease  or  to  acknowl 
edge  the  authority  of  the  Commissioners,  as  did  also  Lamon.  There 
has  been,  therefore,  no  alternative  for  the  Commissioners,  and  they 
have  commenced  legal  proceedings  against  both  these  gentlemen  as 
trespassers,  with  the  view  of  having  the  question  decided  (about 
which  there  seems  to  be  no  reasonable  doubt)  whether  the  State 
really  is  the  proprietor  of  the  grant  made  by  Congress,  or,  in  short, 
whether  the  United  States  have  authority  to  dispose  of  the  unsur- 
veyed  and  unsold  public  land.  It  is  not  the  desire  of  the  Commis 
sioners  to  put  Lamon  and  Hutchings  to  any  greater  expense  than  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  establish  the  validity  of  the  claim  of  the 
State,  and  they  regret  that  the  necessity  for  legal  action  should  have 
arisen. 

The  claim  of  Folsorh  to  the  ferry  and  ladders  will  be  noticed,  after 
speaking  of  the  improvements  made  in  the  valley  by  the  Commis 
sioners,  from  the  funds  appropriated  by  the  last  Legislature.  And 
this  leads  us  to  consider  next  "the  approaches  to  the  Yosemite  and 
the  Big  Trees,  the  trails  and  roads  leading  to  the  grants,  and  the 
facilities  for  visiting  these  places. 

The  Yosemite  Valley  is  situated  nearly  due  east  from  San  Fran 
cisco,  and  distant  in  a  direct  line  about  155  miles,  but  by  the  route 
usually  traveled — via  Stockton — it  is  about  260  miles.  The  main 
Merced  River  runs  through  the  Valley,  and  access  to  it  is  therefore 
possible  from  both  sides  of  the  river.  Not,  however,  by  following 
up  the  river  itself,  as  would  naturally  be  supposed.  This  would  be 
extremely  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  as  the  river  runs,  for  many 
miles  below  the  Yosemite,  through  a  narrow  canon  with  precipitous 
walls.  To  enter  the  Valley,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  rise  fully 
3,000  feet  above  it,  and  then  to  descend  again,  a  practicable  trail 
having  been  constructed  from  the  north  and  south  down  its  precip 
itous  sides  at  the  lower  end.  On  the  north  side,  the  traveller  may 
start  from  Big  Oak  Flat,  or  Coulterville,  the  latter  being  of  late 
years  the  point  usually  selected. 

ness  of  the  season,  the  snow  not  having  left  the  trail  until  late  in  June ;  sec 
ond,  the  fact  that  nearly  all  the  pleasure  travel  of  the  country  has  been  attracted 
to  Paris  by  the  Exposition ;  and  lastly,  the  general  stagnation  of  business  at  the 
East. 


II 

Although  there  is  a  waggon-road  from  Coulterville  as  far  as  Black's 
seventeen  miles,  travellers  generally  start  from  the  first-named  place 
on  horseback,  ride  seventeen  miles,  and  stop  at  Black's  over  night, 
and  the  next  day  ride  into  the  Valley,  the  total  distance  being  forty- 
nine  miles,  of  which  seventeen  are  made  the  first  day  and  thirty-two 
the  second.  The  hotels  in  the  Valley  being  both  on  the  south  side 
of  the  Merced,  travellers  arriving  from  Coulterville,  until  recently, 
had  to  cross  by  a  ferry  after  descending  into  the  Valley,  as  it  is  only 
rarely,  and  then  very  late  in  the  season,  that  the  river  can  be  lorded. 
This,  the  ferry  noticed  above,  is  claimed  by  Mr.  Folsom,  and  is  situ 
ated  three-quarters  of  a  mile  below  the  lower  hotel.  It  is  possible, 
however,  to  ride  up  the  Valley  on  the  north  side  of  the  river,  and 
cross  at  a  bridge  directly  opposite  Hutchings's  hotel ;  but  a  portion 
of  the  trail  is  apt  to  be  boggy  and  another  part  is  very  rocky,  there 
being  much  the  best  ground  for  a  road  on  the  other  side.  To  avoid 
the  delay  of  the  ferry,  therefore,  and  to  make  it  possible  for  visitors 
to  ride  entirely  around  the  Valley,  the  Commissioners  have  had  a 
substantial  bridge  erected  at  the  foot  of  the  Bridal  Veil  Meadow,  not 
far  from  the  place  where  the  trail  descends  from  the  north.  This 
will  enable  travellers  to  make  the  tour  of  the  Valley,  after  the  trail  on 
the  north  side  has  been  put  in  good  order,  and  early  in  the  season, 
when  that  side  is  boggy,  to  avoid  inconvenience,  arid  also  to  avoid 
the  delay  and  expense  of  the  ferry. 

The  Commissioners  have  also  expended  a  small  amount  on  the 
improvement  of  the  trail  from  the  Valley  up  the  canon  of  the  Mer 
ced  to  the  Vernal  Fall,  so  that  visitors  can  ride  nearly  to  the  foot  of 
this  fall,  thus  rendering  a  visit  to  this  interesting  portion  of  the  Yo- 
semite  much  easier  than  it  has  formerly  been.  They  have  also 
placed  a  bridge  across  the  river  above  the  Vernal  Fall,  making  the  trip 
to  the  summit  of  the  Nevada  Fall  a  matter  of  no  great  difficulty,  this 
having  been  an  extremely  long  and  fatiguing  trip  before  the  bridge 
was  built.  The  same  bridge  gives  access  to  new  and  admirable 
views  of  the  Nevada  Fall  and  also  to  Mount  Broderick,  or  the  Cap 
of  Liberty,  and  is,  on  the  whole,  a  quite  important  addition  to  the 
convenience  of  travellers. 

The  building  of  the  bridge  at  the  lower  end  of  the  Valley  does 
away  with  the  necessity  for  a  ferry,  and  the  convenience  of  the  public 
requires  that  a  set  of  steps,  or  staircase,  shall  be  erected  at  the  Ver 
nal  Fall,  in  place  of  the  present  ladders,  which  are  awkward  j  and 
perhaps  even  dangerous,  for  ladies  to  climb.  The  Commissioners 
propose,  therefore,  next  year,  to  place  a  convenient  and  commodious 


12 

staircase  near  the  present  ladders,  leading  by  an  easy  and  safe  ascent 
to  the  top  of  the  fall. 

Since  the  Valley  came  into  the  hands  of  the  State  but  little  has 
been  done  to  improve  the  means  of  access  to  it  from  either  the 
Coulterville  or  the  Mariposa  side.  From  Mariposa  there  is  a  waggon- 
road  as  far  as  White  &  Hatch's,  and  indeed  some  two  miles  farther, 
but  persons  usually  take  horses  at  Bear  Valley  or  Mariposa.  Last 
season,  however,  arrangements  were  made  so  that  travellers  could  be 
driven  to  White  &  Hatch's,  riding  from  there  to  Clark's  the  same 
day,  if  desired ;  the  trail  between  these  two  last  mentioned  places 
is  very  good,  so  that  it  is  not  difficult  for  moderately  good  riders  to 
make  the  trip  from  Mariposa  to  the  Yosemite  in  two  days,  or  in 
three,  if  one  day  be  allowed  for  visiting  the  Big  Trees,  four  miles 
from  Clark's  ranch. 

The  best  method,  undoubtedly,  to  see  the  Yosemite  Valley  and  the 
Big  Tree  Grove,  is  for  the  traveller  to  make  the  round  trip,  starting 
from  Coulterville  and  returning  to  Mariposa,  or  vice  versa.  The 
accommodations  are  good  at  Black's,  on  the  Coulterville  side,  and 
at  (Clark's,  on  the  other  side,  and  these  are  the  usual  stopping  places 
on  the  way  in  and  out  of  the  Valley.  But  as  Black's  is  only  seven 
teen  miles  from  Coulterville,  the  distance  is  quite  unequally  divided 
on  that  side  by  the  Half-way  House,  so  that  one  day's  ride  is  quite 
fatiguing,  being  about  thirty-two  miles.  This  may  be  avoided,  how 
ever,  by  establishing  a  public  house  at  Deer  Flat  and  straightening 
the  road,  which  now  is  extremely  circuitous,  the  distance  from  Coul 
terville  to  Deer  Flat  being  only  a  little  over  twelve  miles  in  a  direct 
line,  while  it  is  nearly  double  that  by  the  present  trail. 

The  trail  on  the  Coultervile  side  passes  the  Bower  Cave,  a  curios 
ity  well  worth  seeing ;  while  on  the  Mariposa  side  the  views  from 
the  trail  descending  into  the  Valley  are  sublime,  and  such  as  cannot 
be  obtained  from  any  other  points.  It  is  for  the  traveller  to  decide 
whether  he  prefers  getting  these  grand  general  views  of  the  Valley 
after  he  has  already  been  there,  or  on  his  way  into  it.  If  he 
wishes  to  have  the  whole  grandeur  of  the  Yosemite  revealed  to  him 
at  once,  he  will  enter  the  Valley  on  the  Mariposa  side  j  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  prefers  to  see  the  various  points  in  succession,  one 
after  another,  and  then  finally,  as  he  leaves  the  Valley,  to  have  these 
glorious  general  views  as  a  kind  of  summing  up  of  the  whole,  he  will 
enter  by  the  Coulterville  and  depart  by  the  Mariposa  side.  In  that 
case  much  the  hardest  day's  work  will  be  the  second,  or  the  ride  from 
Black's  into  the  Valley. 


13 

A  waggon-road  can  be  made  without  much  difficulty  from  Black's 
to  the  edge  of  the  Valley ;  but  to  construct  one  into  the  Valley,  down 
the  cliffs  on  that  side,  would  be  extremely  difficult  and  expensive,  if 
indeed  possible  at  all.  On  the  south  side  a  waggon-road  can  be 
made  into  the  Valley,  but  the  expense  would  be  very  considerable — 
probably  not  less  than  $30,000.  A  considerable  saving  of  time  and 
labor,  for  those  not  accustomed  to  riding  horseback,  could  be  made 
by  continuing  the  waggon-road  from  White  &  Hatch's  to  Clark's, 
which  could,  probably,  be  done  in  good  shape,  for  about  $10,000. 

The  Commissioners  do  not,  however,  consider  it  any  part  of  their 
duty  to  improve  the  approaches  to  the  Valley  or  Big  Trees.  This 
may  safely  be  left  to  the  competition  of  the  counties,  towns  and  indi 
viduals  interested  in  securing  the  travel.  A  small  expenditure  on 
either  side  will  bring  the  Yosemite  to  within  one  day's  easy  ride  on 
horseback — that  is  to  say,  easy  for  persons  somewhat  accustomed  to 
mountain  travel.  And  when  a  waggon-road  shall  have  been  extended 
from  Coulterville  to  the  brow  of  the  Valley  on  that  side,  and  to 
Clark's  on  the  other,  the  trip  need  no  longer  be  one  which  will  over- 
fatigue  travellers  in  ordinary  health,  provided  they  do  not  attempt  to 
make  the  journey  in  the  smallest  possible  number  of  days,  thus 
sacrificing  everything  to  the  single  idea  of  getting  through  the  jour 
ney  rapidly. 

In  the  Valley,  the  Commissioners  are  desirous  of  continuing  the 
work  begun  by  them,  of  making  all  the  most  interesting  points  as 
accessible  as  possible,  and  of  removing  all  obstacles  to  free  circula 
tion.  The  road  around  the  Valley  requires  improving  ;  the  trail  to 
the  Vernal  Fall  needs  some  additional  work  to  make  it  secure ;  a 
bridge  must  be  built  over  the  Illiluette  fork,  and  a  stair-case  up  the 
Vernal  Fall.  A  bridge  across  the  Merced  at  the  upper  end  of  the 
Valley,  and  one  across  the  Tenaya  Fork,  are  also  desirable,  and  the 
Commissioners  recommend  an  appropriation  of  $1,200  to  enable 
them  to  effect  these  improvements  during  the  next  two  years. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  above  report : 

1.  The  Commissioners  propose  to  leave  the  improvement  of  the 
roads  to  the  Big  Trees  and  the  Yosemite  Valley  to  parties  interested 
in  increasing  the  amount  of  travel  on  either  of  the  rival  routes. 

2.  They  desire  to  continue,  on  a  moderate  scale,  the  improve 
ments  in  and  about  the  Valley  itself,  for  the  purpose  of  rendering 
interesting  points  more  accessible,  and  to  remove  all  charges  on 
visitors  for  trails,  bridges,  ladders,  ferries,  etc.    For  this  purpose  they 


14 

ask  an  appropriation  of  $1,200,  or  $600  for  each  of  the  next  two 
years. 

3.  They  propose  to  increase  the  salary  of  the  Guardian  so  that  he 
may  pay  an  Assistant  Guardian,  and  in  order  that  one  or  the  other 
of  them  may  remain  permanently  in  the  Valley  during  the  season  of 
visitors.    For  this  they  ask  authority  and  an  appropriation  of  $2,000, 
or  $1,000  per  annum. 

4.  They  also  ask  for  $800  to  pay  the  necessary  expenses  incurred 
by  them  in  preparing  a  plat  and  survey  of  the*  claims  in  the  Valley, 
which  has  been  found  indispensable. 

5.  They  intend  to  continue  the  legal  investigation  of  the  claims 
of  the  settlers  in  the  Valley  until  the  highest  Court  of  law  has  de 
cided  on  their  value. 

6.  They  leave  it  to  the  Legislature  to  say  whether  any  remuner 
ation  shall  be  made  to  the  settlers,  Lamon  and  Hutchings,  for  dam 
ages  done  them  by  the  action  of  Congress  and  the  State  in  taking 
possession  of  the  Valley. 

7.  They  ask  that  police  authority  be  given  to  the  Guardian  and 
sub-Guardian  of  the  Yosemite  Valley,  so  that  offenders  may  be  ar 
rested  at  once,  without  the  necessity  of  taking  out  a  warrant  at  a 
place  sixty  miles  distant  from  the  spot  where  the  offense  was  com 
mitted. 

8.  They  ask  for  $1,000  to  pay  the  necessary  travelling  expenses 
of  the  Commissioners  and  all  other  incidental  expenses  during  the 
next  two  years. 

Summary  of  appropriations  asked  for:  For  surveys  of  claims 
and  plot  of  Valley,  $800;  for  improvements  in  Valley,  $1,200;  for 
pay  of  Guardian  and  assistant,  $2,000;  for  travelling  and  incidental 
expenses,  $1,000:  total,  $5,000.  The  above  is  the  smallest  sum 
with  which  the  business  of  the  Commission  can  be  carried  on  for 
the  next  two  years. 

The  above  is  respectfully  submitted,  by  order  of  the  Board,  to 
gether  with  the  Treasurer's  account  of  expenditures,  as  required  by 
law. 

J.  D.  WHITNEY, 
Chairman  of  Executive  Committee. 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  November  14,  1867. 


I1  Ml  VERS1TY  ? 

of 


